Hibs manager Neil Lennon believes that Celtic captain Scott Brown can play for another three or four years at the top level for the Parkhead side after announcing his second international retirement.

The 32-year-old announced his decision yesterday morning that he will not be available for the European Championship qualification campaign under Alex McLeish and it is unlikely that there will be any going back this time.

And while Lennon doesn’t believe that the additional travel or game time had an overly taxing effect on Brown, he does expect that the mental break will be as beneficial as the physical one when the international calendar takes precedence.

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“He is a genuine leader so it will be difficult for Scotland to replace that,” said Lennon, who played and managed Brown at Celtic. “From Celtic’s point of view I think he can play at this level and sustain the kind of form that he has shown this season until he is 35, 36.

“He is a fit lad, really strong and he looks after himself really well. He has a young family now and I think it is probably more so about spending the time away from home when there is so much of that at club level anyway.

“But what it will enable him to do is focus purely on Celtic and that is no bad thing from the club’s point of view. If you are in Brendan Rodgers’ shoes too then you are thinking when the international games come around that it is one player, a key player for you, that you don’t have to worry about losing to injury or need to give a rest to in subsequent games.

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“If you watch Scott and look at his stats in games, he is still covering a helluva lot of ground. He is still producing at this level and you could argue that he is one of the most consistent performers in the team. There is no reason now why he can’t sustain that.”