Celtic captain Scott Brown could face Inverness

23 November 2012 15:17

Celtic captain Scott Brown is in contention to face Inverness on Saturday - but is still likely to face surgery after the visit of Spartak Moscow.

Neil Lennon stated on Tuesday that Brown looked like needing an operation on his ongoing hip problem after failing to last 90 minutes in the 2-1 defeat against Benfica, but the Celtic manager later discovered the midfielder had gone off with cramp in his legs.

Lennon will now look to keep his skipper going until the Champions League group decider against Spartak Moscow on December 5, before referring him to a consultant, and the Hoops boss said: "Scott Brown is in contention to play tomorrow remarkably. We will refer him after Moscow and see how he is."

He added: "The problem is we don't have the time to let him settle down. Looking at the condition, it normally requires surgery.

"The problem on Tuesday night was he was just out of condition a bit because he has not been training.

"He has trained in the last couple of days and we are doing some physical work and see what reaction we get."

Lennon revealed it would be an eight-week rehabilitation process once Brown goes under the knife.

"So he would miss maybe the majority of December and January and have him back in February, but we do have a two-week winter break in January," he added.

Celtic's medical team will try to balance Brown's need to both rest his hip and maintain his sharpness ahead of the Spartak clash.

Lennon added: "It's not hampering when he plays, it's just the reaction he gets after games where he is in a lot of discomfort for two or three days, and it seems to fluctuate from game to game. If I could get a Brown who played in the first three games of the (Champions League) competition then I would be delighted with that. That's what we are going to aim for."

Source: PA