The respite offered by an international break after a frantic first five weeks of the season should be gratefully embraced by Neil Lennon.

However, like an anxious parent waiting for his kids to come home from a weekend away to make sure they have emerged unscathed for the exper- ience, the Celtic manager is discovering there is a emotional price to pay for this peace.

Lennon is delighted the authorities have attempted to ease the ‘suffering’ for bosses by moving internationals to Fridays and Tuesdays, the intention being to return players to their clubs 24 hours earlier than previously had been the norm.

But when you have recruited men from all across the globe, it remains a logistical challenge to get them back to base camp in time to have any meaningful training time with them ahead of the action resuming this weekend.

And, with Hearts the visitors to Celtic Park on Saturday, Lennon needs to know as quickly as possible how his players have coped with playing, in many cases, two competitive internationals inside five days, with the travelling that accompanies this.

Lennon accepts that, when you are buying quality players, the price you have to pay is sharing them with their national team.

And the entire fraught pro-cess will have to be endured all over again a month from now when another international double-header kicks off.

Of course, the Celtic manager is not alone in this. Across the city, Walter Smith saw seven of his players seconded by Scotland boss Craig Levein, while a handful of others travelled to play with their countries.

But while Smith is exper-ienced in dealing with this, it is something with which Lennon is still coming to terms. And, with 11 new faces arriving in the transfer window and requiring to be bedded in, the value of having time to work with them all is clear.

Last Tuesday, Anthony Stokes became the final piece of the jigsaw Lennon has been painstakingly building through- out the summer.

But the striker did not even manage to set foot on the Lennoxtown training ground before he had to fly out to join the Republic of Ireland Under-21 squad, and will not have his first session with all his new team-mates until the end of this week.

Lennon admitted: “After all the transfer window activity, we wanted to settle things down and work with the squad.

“Unfortunately, most of them are away on international duty, and we will have to see how they are when they come back.”

That is the most worrying aspect of losing players to their international teams, the fear that they could pick up injuries which would rule them out of playing for the clubs who pay their wages.

Just as he did last Friday, tomorrow night Lennon will be scanning matches all across Europe – and beyond – hoping not to hear anything untoward regarding any of his men.

He understands there is nothing he can do to nullify this danger, but that does not make it any easier to handle.

Often it can be psychologic-ally rather than physically that players have been hurt, especially if results go against them or they have found themselves left out when they thought they should have won another cap.

But dealing with this is all part of being a club manager, as Lennon is quickly learning.

“We plan in advance and look at alternatives because we don’t know how fit they are going to be when they return from playing two games and the travelling,” Lennon told Channel 67.

“So we will assess how they are on Thursday and Friday and look at the other players we have got in the squad.

“That’s why we have strength in depth. We will need that for the coming season.”

Lennon appreciates the need to get the balance right if they are to get the best from their men throughout the campaign, even if the extra demands which come with playing in Europe are now no longer a factor.

He said: “The players who have remained here trained for a few days last week, then we gave them three or four days off just to rest and spend a bit of time with their families because it has been a pretty hectic six or seven weeks, including pre-season.

“We will still have a good group to work with today, and we will work them pretty hard this week.”

Lennon and his coaching staff are experienced in making the transition from international duty back to club football, and understand how important it is to recognise what is required to seamlessly get them back into the groove.

He recalled the highs and lows which playing for Nothern Ireland brought him, but said: “The only worry you have is that they don’t pick up injuries and that they all come back physically pretty fit.

“Mentally, it should not be too much of a problem picking them back up.”