Mowbray says rest will work wonders for recovering Brown
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Your support makes all the difference.Tony Mowbray, the Celtic manager, is hoping Scott Brown will be fit for Saturday's Scottish Premier League game with Motherwell. Brown pulled out of the Scotland squad for Saturday's friendly defeat in Japan because of continued discomfort on the ankle he had surgery on in May.
That followed a visit to a Harley Street expert, who prescribed a period of rest for the 24-year-old midfielder. Mowbray also revealed that summer signing Marc-Antoine Fortuné was close to returning from the knee injury which has sidelined the striker for seven weeks.
He said: "I hope Scott is going to be okay for the Motherwell game. We've been nursing him through the last few weeks and he needed a break. We wanted to give him a rest and the specialist felt that would benefit him, too. That's why Scott didn't go to Japan and hopefully it will help him over the coming weeks.
"Marc-Antoine Fortuné is another player that we're assessing closely and we hope he isn't too far away. Marc had some rehab to do, but he's been back running on the grass and things seem to be fine with him. He's looking fit and strong, but we'll move him on to twisting and turning this week and then contact football before too long."
Hamstring injury victims Andreas Hinkel and Danny Fox could also return to action soon, while Shaun Maloney is responding to treatment to his Achilles problem which also forced him pull out of the Scotland squad.
The Australia striker Scott McDonald was another who had to miss out on playing for his country as a result of a lower back injury, but he is expected to figure against his former club.
Celtic went into the international break on the back of a 2-1 defeat in the first Old Firm derby of the season. That saw their lead at the top of the SPL cut to just a point.
Mowbray said: "Ultimately, the pleasing aspect is that we are top of the league. We are all disappointed by the Rangers result, but the opening fixtures have been tough."
That view was echoed by winger Aiden McGeady, who said: "As a team, I think we are progressing, and it's good to be top of the league, even though we lost against Rangers. We really do just want to get back to winning ways against Motherwell. I think everyone would agree there is more to come from us. At times we haven't been at our best. But we are still top and that's got to be a positive.
"The Rangers game was our first defeat, and that can happen in derbies. You never win every game at Ibrox."
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