Ankle op will rule Brown out for ten weeks

The midfielder initially sustained the injury while playing for Scotland against Denmark in August and has missed the last four games for Celtic.

He will now have a “minor procedure” on the joint, handing another headache to Celtic manager Neil Lennon, whose side currently lie third in the SPL table, ten points behind leaders Rangers.

Brown twice underwent surgery on the affected right ankle in 2009 but he has insisted the latest injury is unrelated to his earlier issues.

Celtic have ruled Brown out for eight to ten weeks, the 26-year-old joining Kelvin Wilson and Emilio Izaguirre on the long-term injury list.

Wilson is expected to be out for a similar period with an Achilles injury while Izaguirre is not due back until December at the earliest.

Lennon was also without Beram Kayal, Cha Du-ri and Joe Ledley for Sunday’s 2-0 defeat against Hearts, Celtic’s fifth in ten games, although Ledley expects to return from his groin problem for the trip to Kilmarnock on 15 October.

Right-back Mark Wilson, who has himself missed several games through injury this season, believes the lack of consistency in selection has been a major factor in the team’s recent struggles in defence. “It would be nice to get a settled back four because I think that’s where a lot of our success came from last season,” said Wilson.

“We were solid and kept a lot of clean sheets and it would be nice to get back to that. The changes have been happening across the defence.”