Celtic skipper Scott Brown ready to answer Scotland call again
Scott Brown has confirmed he will make himself available for Scotland's 2018 World Cup qualifier against Slovenia next month.
Scott Brown has confirmed he will make himself available for Scotland's 2018 World Cup qualifier against Slovenia next month.
The 31-year-old Celtic skipper came out of retirement for the 3-0 defeat to England at Wembley in November and said that he would assess his fitness for the Hampden Park fixture on March 26, four days after Gordon Strachan's men play a friendly against Canada at Easter Road.
Brown said: "Me and Gordon spoke and we will take it from there. It is up to him whether he chooses me or not.
"I enjoyed the last game even though we got beat 3-0. I am proud to play for my country, I enjoy it and I thought against England we did quite well. The last 20 minutes were always going to be hard but we created chances and could easily have scored goals but it just wasn't our day.
"I have managed to maintain a standard of training and playing at a good level in the last couple of weeks and I don't want my form to dip due to me going away with Scotland.
"But this is huge for me. If I can continue my form until the end of the season it is not too bad a shout but if not, we know what will need to happen.
The midfielder stressed that Celtic remain his priority.
He said: "If I found out this game is too much for me, that will be it, it will be back to square one and back to retirement again.
"I think we are going to take it one game at a time and see how it goes."
On the prospect of featuring against Canada, Brown, capped 51 times, said: "I haven't really thought about that yet. But we will see what happens with Gordon. We will have a wee chat about it."
Ahead of the home Ladbrokes Premiership clash with Hamilton at Parkhead on Saturday, Brendan Rodgers called for more protection for his players from referees.
The Hoops boss flagged up a "horrendous" tackle by Ryan Bowman on left-back Kieran Tierney last week which only brought a yellow card for the Motherwell player, and a challenge by Inverness midfielder Iain Vigurs on attacker Scott Sinclair in the previous fixture which also failed to be punished by a red card.
Brown believes the problem, primarily, is that Celtic are giving teams the run-around as the champions look to extend their unbeaten domestic run since the start of the season to 32 games against Accies.
The former Hibernian player said: "I wouldn't say deliberate but I think it is more tiredness.
"I have been there on the end of 5-0 and 6-0 and not got a touch of the ball for three or four minutes at a time.
"Your body is tired, you lunge in and you think you have a chance of getting the ball but you are nowhere near it.
"It is just tiredness more than anything and hopefully that is the case for the players that left their foot in that little bit too late.
"I think it shows how fit we are. We have a lot of the ball, we are trying to keep possession and tire teams out because teams are defending quite deep with a lot of bodies behind the ball.
"It will be hard for anyone to keep working that hard and, as I say, I have been there. It is hard work when you don't get a touch for three and four minutes and you lose the ball and you go in for a tackle and you are out."
Brown stressed that the Celtic players are no shrinking violets.
He said: "We can stick up for ourselves. We have a lot of people in that changing room that love a tackle but an honest tackle, not a scared tackle. It might be hard but it is always clean."
Looking towards the visit of Hamilton, Brown said: "Momentum is a huge thing. We have been exciting and it has been great for us to get on the park and play that kind of football.
"And for us to be doing it for the last 31 games, and for the fans to be enjoying it as well, it has been great for us. And the longer we continue it the better it is for everyone."