Daily Record

I’M TAKING THIS MONTH BY MONTH

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From Back Page sections of the Tartan Army and accused of selecting his games. Brown knows he may cop more flak now but claims he can’t gamble on his fitness and take liberties with his body.

He said: “I need to think about playing for as long as I can and doing what’s best for me.

“If it comes to it, stuff everybody else, to be perfectly honest.

“We’ll see who comes in as (Scotland) manager. Then we’ll see what happens.

“Listen, I’ve not made any decision whatsoever. The way I’m playing I’m enjoying my football. I play as many games as I can,

“If the Scotland games come and the new manager wants me to come along then I’m happy to go.

“But I’ll be 35-and-a-half by the time the campaign finishes so it depends.

“I think I need to go month by month fitness wise. The important thing is I’m playing well at Celtic and still pushing myself.

“As soon as you start fading away at Celtic, not playing every week, you can’t go into those high intensity internatio­nals.

“You can’t up your game for one match, go flying into it, when you haven’t played for three or four weeks.

“That’s when injuries happen and you start to feel aches and pains.

“Right now I’m feeling as fresh as I probably ever have done. I’m raring to go again.

“I love playing for Scotland. The Euro finals in 2020 have games in Glasgow which would be great but I don’t even know if I’ll still be playing by then.

“I really enjoy being captain of Scotland. It’s a huge honour but sometimes you need to look after your own body.

“I retired the last time due to me not being fit enough. I couldn’t set the standards I wanted to set for Celtic or Scotland.

“It was hard but since the manager came in at Celtic he has freshened everything up and I feel good again.

“But that’s a thing I need to keep in the back of my mind, that I don’t kill myself with Scotland for 10 days and two big games.

“I need to be playing for Celtic as well so I need to make sure I’m fine for the best of both worlds.”

Brown wants to extend his career as long as he can and said: “I’d love to play to 37 or 38 if I could.

“I look at people like Gordon Strachan and Gary McAllister who played into their forties. They did it back then although it’s a different world now.

“We have 60 games a season and it’s a lot on your body. I got six days holiday last year so it’s tough.”

The SFA have yet to name Strachan’s successor and Brown added: “It could be that the new manager doesn’t want me. I might get to turn up and have a coffee with the lads and that’s it!”

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 ??  ?? ROARING 40s Strachan
ROARING 40s Strachan

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