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Celtic duo Scott Brown and Stuart Armstrong out for 'next few weeks'

Celtic's Scott Brown (left) limps off injured
Image: Scott Brown injured his hamstring in the Champions League win at Anderlecht

Scott Brown (hamstring) and Stuart Armstrong (calf) have been ruled out for the next few weeks and will miss Scotland's World Cup Qualifiers with Slovakia and Slovenia next week.

Brown came off 20 minutes from time during the 3-0 Champions League win over Anderlecht in midweek while Armstrong, who played the full 90 minutes at Ibrox last Saturday, suffered a calf injury during the warm-up in Brussels.

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Celtic Technical Assistant Kolo Toure says working with Brendan Rodgers is a massive opportunity .

The Scottish FA said on Friday they were no plans to bring in cover 'at this point in time'. Gordon Strachan had named a 25-man squad on Monday.

Speaking ahead of the Premiership encounter with Hibernian, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said: "Scott has had a scan so him and Stuart Armstrong will not be available for a few weeks.

"It is unfortunate, just a slight strain of top of the hamstring and calf. It is unfortunate for both, unfortunate for us and obviously for Scotland."

Stuart Armstrong celebrates adding a fourth late on
Image: Armstrong has had issues with his calves previously, said Rodgers

Armstrong had been named among the substitutes in Belgium and Rodgers revealed he was not aware of the extent of the problem until after the game had started.

He said: "He actually did it in the warm-up and it was only midway through the half that one of the medical team had said that he had hurt it.

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"He went out to warm-up after it had happened but he still felt the pain there.

"He has played a lot of games and it has been the case of trying to manage the squad, hence the reason why he wasn't starting the game the other night. He has had issues with his calves before.

Stuart Armstrong, James Forrest, Scott Brown, Kieran Tierney, Craig Gordon and Leigh Griffiths all started for Scotland in both internationals.
Image: Brown (left) and Armstrong (centre) both featured in Scotland's recent win in Lithuania

"It is not so serious but it is the timing of it which is unfortunate for him, us and Scotland."

Rodgers has not given up hope both players could recover in time for Celtic's third Champions League group game against Bayern Munich in Germany on October 18.

He said: "We don't think it is obviously serious. There are various gradings on these types of injuries and it is something that is probably a few weeks. So it puts them out of the game tomorrow and the international games."

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