PFA Scotland: James Forrest, Ryan Kent, Callum McGregor & Alfredo Morelos vie for top award

Two players each from leaders Celtic and second-top Rangers have been nominated for the PFA Scotland Premiership Player of the Year award.

Celtic winger James Forrest and midfielder Callum McGregor are joined by Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos and on-loan Liverpool winger Ryan Kent.

Kent is also among the nominations for the young player award.

He is up against Aberdeen’s Lewis Ferguson and Motherwell pair David Turnbull and Jake Hastie.

It will be the first time in four years that Celtic left-back Kieran Tierney – who remains eligible for the award at 21 – will not have lifted the young player prize.

And it will also be the first time in five years that a Celtic defender will not claim the award, with Jason Denayer preceding Tierney.

Celtic captain Scott Brown topped the player of the year voting among his peers last season, becoming only the second player to win it twice after former Celtic striker Henrik Larsson.

Forrest was also nominated last year, along with former Hibernian midfielder John McGinn and Kilmarnock striker Kris Boyd.

He and Scotland team-mate McGregor will be looking to make it a sixth season in a row that the award has gone to a Celtic player.

If it is won by Morelos or Kent, they will become the first to buck that trend since former Motherwell striker Michael Higdon won in 2012-13.

Morelos was nominated for the young player award last season along with Aberdeen defender Scott McKenna and St Mirren winger Lewis Morgan, now of Celtic.

Two notable absentees from the list, who were 21 at the start of the season, are strikers Sam Cosgrove, of Aberdeen, and Odsonne Edouard, of Celtic.

The last non-Celtic player to win that award was Scotland left-back Andrew Robertson, now of Liverpool and then of Dundee United, in 2013-14.