Scott Brown intends to play for 90 minutes in Austria tomorrow night for the first time since suffering a serious hamstring injury in the same country two months ago.
The Celtic captain will start against Red Bull Salzburg in the next step of his recovery, having made a significant early impact in his first competitive appearance of the season, against Aberdeen on Saturday. He played for an hour. Having recovered from a muscle tear he described as "the sorest pain I've ever had" Brown will now attempt to drive his team to a winning start in Austria.
Brown pulled a muscle in the opening minutes of a friendly against Rapid Vienna in July, which ruled him out of all of the Champions League qualifiers and Scotland's Euro 2016 opener in Germany. "I've been trying to push myself as much as possible and test the boundaries, but my hamstring is feeling as good as it's ever felt, so long may that continue.
"It was a relief to come through the first training session, let alone the first game back. When it was coming to 35, 50 minutes on the clock and I had a look up and I was breathing hard. You think '10 minutes still to go here, Scott, try to get a touch of the ball and try to kid on you're still looking forward to passing'. But it was hard. I'll take it as it goes. I trained today and I'll just try to push myself as far as possible."
Brown suffered excruciating pain when the injury happened but felt okay a day or two later, until an MRI scan revealed the extent of the damage he'd done. "The muscle ripped apart. I shouldn't try to stretch at 29! I had done a good warm-up and I can't blame the temperature, it was 35 degrees. It was just one of those freak accidents that happen, you overstretch and it just snaps. It was the sorest pain I've ever had but coming back in the few days afterwards I felt good. I thought it was maybe just a wee tweak. It was only when you get the MRI scan [that you realise the seriousness]."
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