Former Celtic player Morten Wieghorst has opened up on the role he played in Matt O'Riley becoming a Denmark international.

The 23-year-old made his debut for Kasper Hjulmand's team last November in a 2-0 defeat to Northern Ireland.

O'Riley has starred for the Hoops this season under Brendan Rodgers, scoring 10 goals and providing 12 assists across 33 appearances.

And Wieghorst, who is the Denmark assistant boss, broke down the midfielder's journey at international level.

Speaking to the official Celtic FC Podcast, he said: "It was not long after he signed for Celtic. I spoke to Jesper Sorensen, the Denmark U21s manager at the time to speak about some players.

"We spoke about O'Riley as we were aware that he is half-Danish through one of his parents and that he had been with our U16 and U17 teams before.

"Jesper asked me if I would like to go with him and watch Matt because of my Celtic connection. The first objective was to see if he wanted to play for Denmark.

"We watched the game against Bodo/Glimt in Europe at Parkhead and then I spoke to him afterwards.

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"It turned out that he was very interested in playing for Denmark. At first, he was picked for the U-21s, but we sensed right away that he was a genuine lad who is very ambitious."

The Danes have been drawn in a group with England, Slovenia and Serbia for Euro 2024 as they look to better their run to the semi-final of the last iteration of the competition.

And Weighorst explained O'Riley's chances of being on the plane to Germany.

"Matt came along voluntarily and did well," he continued. "That goes to show that he really wants to progress and play for Denmark.

"He was an important part of the U21s and last year he got his chance in the full international set-up. The rest is history and I know he wants to do everything to get into the squad for the Euros."