England’s loss is Celtic’s gain as Scott Sinclair continues to be overlooked for his national team.

One thing is certain – the only traction the midfielder will have as he seeks to win recognition from his current Scottish base is to sparkle in the Champions League.

Clearly, no matter how well he plays domestically – and he is playing far better now than at any point in his career down south – it is only with the added currency of doing it against the elite of Europe that he will have any chance of winning over his doubters.

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He is one of the players at Lennoxtown who will be itching to get the games coming thick and fast again having kicked his heels for the last fortnight.

Celtic have got the best out of Sinclair and the break will have worked in his favour, albeit that the lad himself would far rather have been involved in the international calendar.

All he can do is keep pushing himself the way he has been since he arrived at Celtic. Producing more of the same and being pivotal to Celtic’s cause in the Champions League is the ideal way to keep his name out there.

Certainly, you would expect him to be a mainstay over the next 10 days for Brendan Rodgers’ side who have games against Dundee, Bayern Munich and Hibs looming.

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Saturday, Wednesday and Sunday as Celtic get back into gear again.

And, in some ways, the one that might actually shape up as being the most important one is the game at Hampden against Hibs in the semi-final of the League Cup.

Dundee is the least difficult of the trio – no games are easy – but regardless of whether there was a blip or not this weekend, you just wouldn’t expect there to be any real impact on the eventual outcome of the league.

Ditto Bayern Munich. I will talk more about this in a moment but this is hugely difficult for Celtic this week as they head back on the road in the Champions League. A Europa League finish is still on the cards for Celtic after their win over Anderlecht and that won’t change regardless of what happens in Munich.

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Interestingly enough, Celtic came off the back of a midweek Champions League meeting a couple of weeks back when Neil Lennon’s men gave them a tough afternoon of it at Celtic Park – and it will be the same again at Hampden.

With the club still vying for a back-to-back Treble this is a game that takes on all sorts of significance and in that vein you can be sure it will be a strong team that goes out at the national stadium.

In differing circumstances I think there might have been an opportunity for a break for some of the lads who have been away on international duty this weekend but with two pretty big games coming after this one against Dundee, I suspect it will be a very similar starting XI that will feature in all three games.

The exception, of course, will be Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong, both of whom will hopefully be pushing for a return if not for the Bayern game then for the game at Hampden against Hibs.