Celtic will host a charity match to celebrate the career of former midfielder Stiliyan Petrov early in the new season, the Scottish champions have announced.
Petrov, who announced his retirement last month at the age of 33 as he continues his battle with leukaemia, and a number of his former team-mates and other players and celebrity fans will turn out at Celtic Park on Sunday, September 8 (2pm kick-off).
The ex-Bulgaria, CSKA Sofia and Aston Villa player, who is setting up a foundation to help address the issues involved when people receive a leukaemia diagnosis, said: "I'm absolutely delighted that this game is going to take place at Celtic Park.
"It will be a wonderful start for my foundation, and I'm really happy to be coming back to a place where I spent seven brilliant years. It will be great to see everyone there."
Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell added: "Stiliyan was a wonderful servant to the club and his drive, commitment and natural flair made him a true fans' favourite.
"He has shown remarkable courage and determination in his battle against leukaemia and we will continue to support him as his recovery continues.
"We are absolutely delighted to host this charity match which will provide our supporters with a collective opportunity to show their appreciation and love for one of our own."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article