Simon Donnelly has dismissed claims Celtic are "running scared" of Rangers by pushing for the league season to go on an early winter break.
Because he reckons the club simply want to have fans in the stadium to see it.
There has been much debate over the decision to bring the winter break forward amid the rise in covid cases but with stadia limited to 500 capacity in Scotland, the vast majority of Premiership clubs felt they had no choice.
Celtic were one of the vocal supporters of the move while Rangers on the other side of the city wanted to play on.
But claims that Celtic simply wanted the break due to their injury situation were laughed off by Ange Postecoglou who said it was simply because they didn't want to play to a near-empty stadium like they did against St Johnstone on Boxing Day.
Donnelly, a former Celtic striker, was asked on Go Radio if he felt his old team were "running scared" of in-form Rangers after the derby was pushed back a month to February 2.
And his answer was as clear as it gets.
He said: "No, to be honest. I think there's a lot of tit for tat, because Celtic have suffered a lot of injuries recently to guys like Jota.
"But you want the fans there. See if the game was at Ibrox, I would have wanted the fans there as well.
"Celtic fans are part of Ibrox and Rangers should have fans at Celtic Park.
"I've played through these games, it brings something to the fixture.
"The thing is, we can't guarantee by the time the day comes round, that we'll have a full stadium.
"We can't guarantee it but fingers crossed."
