Neil Lennon has denied that Scott Brown’s hip injury is career threatening but admitted that it will require surgery.
The Celtic skipper has been used sparingly this season and is likely to be preserved for Champions League matches over the coming months.
Brown helped Celtic through to the Champions League by seeing off Helsingborgs but missed out on the SPL clashes with Inverness Caley Thistle and Hibs following both games against the Swedes.
The Celtic skipper wasn’t named in the Scotland international squad to face Serbia and Macedonia and is likely to be spared next Saturday’s visit to St Johnstone in order to be 100% fit to face Benfica on September 19.
“Scott’s not training right now,” Lennon explained. “He could have played against Serbia but there’s no way he could have got through the Macedonia game. That’s where we are just now with him.
“We have six games in 23 days coming up and Scott won’t play most of those. It’s not career-threatening but we want to avoid surgery at this time if we can.
“We need to take it week by week. We don’t want to inject him before games and it’s really corrective surgery that’s needed.
“It is a degenerative problem so he might need to go in, get it cleaned up and then shut down for a spell.”
Charlie Mulgrew has returned to Celtic for treatment on his achilles injury with talks due with the Scotland backroom staff to assess the defenders fitness.
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Very happy how NL and backroom staff are taking their time with Scott. Hes the heart of the Celtic team and gives us so much energy from start to finish. He has bit his tongue a bit in relation to getting involved in ‘situations’and hes probabaly happier inside for that. My son and I met him outside CP recently for a picture….what an absolute gentleman. Hail hail Scott take your time mate.
^ if only he could now learn to pass the ball along with his new-found captain’s temperment