AFTER three months away from the game, Scott Brown and his team-mates are savouring the chance to return to competitive football in the coming weeks. At first, that’ll be behind closed doors – but the skipper said the Hoops cannot wait to play in front of a full house at Paradise.

At present, the Scottish champions await the go-ahead for full-contact training, having returned to Lennoxtown in reduced capacity last week. The skipper said once that happens, the next step will be organising friendly matches, before ramping things up for the start of the Premiership and the UEFA Champions League qualifiers in August.

Speaking to Celtic TV today (Friday) Brown said: “It’s good to be back, we’re back playing football at Lennoxtown, and hopefully we can get the fans back into the stadium as soon as possible. We’ve missed playing, we’ve missed the fans as well, and we just want to get things back to normal as quickly as possible – but we need to make sure everyone is safe in doing so, and that tick all the boxes as well.

“The fans, I’m sure, want to get back in as well, to see us playing and winning games. For us, there’s nothing better than to be playing at Celtic Park in front of 60,000, that’s what we want, but as I said, we need to make sure that we do it safety first, which we have been doing. We will get the fans back and we’re looking forward to it!”

Brown admitted the adjustment to training at the moment has been difficult, but admitted that, overall, he's delighted to be back on the pitch and is now fully focused on the season ahead. The captain understands what the upcoming campaign means to Celtic’s brilliant fanbase, but likewise acknowledged how much it means to every player in the Hoops dressing room.

He added: “It’s great that we’re going to have the European qualifiers back, and we’re going to get the league started as well. We definitely need a few friendlies, that’s for sure, and the lads are looking forward to that. Once we do get that contact in training, then we can push on to get a few games as well.

“This season means a lot to the fans, but it means a lot to us as players as well - especially myself and James, we’ve been here from the start, we’ve done it all the way through the nine. But it’s always about taking games one at a time. We need to make sure we get the Champions League qualifiers sorted, we start the league really well, and we come to Christmas and we’re in that good position yet again which we were last year.

“We went to Dubai, we came back in great spirits, we were flying, and we were just disappointed that we couldn’t finish the season because we had the momentum, we were doing really well, and we believed that we were going to be a lot more points clear. It wasn’t to be, the season is over, we got the league title, and now we’re ready to go again.”

Scott Brown: We hope to get fans back in as soon as possible