RONNY DEILA has expressed his delight at the news captain Scott Brown could make his Celtic return as early as tomorrow following a two-month injury lay off.
The Hoops and Scotland midfielder was carried off with a hamstring injury just a few minutes into the friendly with Rapid Vienna back in July.
Parkhead medical staff had feared their inspirational skipper may be unavailable well into October, ruling him out many of the club's European games as well as key openers in the national team's Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.
However, Deila has revealed Brown's recovery has gone much better than initially expected, with the 29-year-old now back training with the rest of the Celtic team.
And the Parkhead boss reckons fans could see him return to action tomorrow when Aberdeen come to town.
He said: "He looks very well. He could maybe play on Saturday.
"We are talking about new signings, but to also get injured players back is great. Everybody knows how important Scott is to this team.
"He looks good and needs minutes under his belt.
"It's tough to get players the minutes they need at the top level to get their fitness back. But when we do that I see a very good team.
"I'm not sure, but he is training with the team well now.
"It's positive and his body is improving quick so that's good."
However, it wasn't all good news for the Celtic manager with fears growing Charlie Mulgrew may need to undergo surgery after picking up a knee problem.
The 28-year-old was sent off for Scotland against Germany on Sunday while on international duty, although it's not clear when the injury was first picked up.
And with Celtic's first Europa League game against Dinamo Zagreb now less than three weeks away, Mulgrew may face a race against time if he is to be fit for the start of the Hoops' group stage campaign.
Deila said: "Charlie is struggling. I don't know how long that is going to take to get better. That's not positive.
"It could be some weeks. He has a meniscus problem with his knee and it could need surgery, but I hope we don't need to do that."
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