Celtic captain has red card downgraded after appeal

Captain wins appeal over sending off at Ross County

Celtic skipper Scott Brown’s Ross County red card has been downgraded to a yellow on appeal, which frees him to play against Rangers tomorrow.

The Hoops midfielder was sent off against the Staggies on April 16 for a foul on Liam Boyce in the 2-2 Ladbrokes Premiership draw in Dingwall.

Brown’s appeal allowed him to play in the 2-0 William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final win over the Light Blues at Hampden Park on Sunday.

After a Scottish FA disciplinary tribunal met at Hampden yesterday to consider his claim of wrongful dismissal, the appeal was upheld with the sending off reduced to a caution.

Brown will play in the Old Firm derby at Ibrox but the yellow card takes him over the disciplinary threshold which triggers a two-game suspension which means he will sit out the subsequent matches against St Johnstone and Aberdeen.

Meanwhile, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has not ruled Moussa Dembele out of the William Hill Scottish Cup final.

The French striker pulled up in the first half of the win over Rangers on Sunday with a hamstring injury.

It was believed that the 20-year-old would play no further part in Celtic’s season but the Hoops boss claimed he still “has a chance” of facing Aberdeen at Hampden on May 27.

“He will be out for the foreseeable future,” added Rodgers ahead of their Ladbrokes Premiership contest with Rangers at Ibrox tomorrow.

“He had his scan on his hamstring. We will monitor him and assess it over time and see how he reacts.

“There is a period of time with individuals with hamstrings, which is never to say that he can’t be back within that.

“He was on a bike today and moving the hamstring so we will see.

“It is a hamstring tear, not overly serious, but we will assess it over the next two to three weeks.”

Rodgers claimed Patrick Roberts, his on-loan attacker from Manchester City, was lucky not to sustain a broken leg in the challenge by Andy Halliday, which brought the Gers player a yellow card.

He was speaking in the context of Fifa president Gianni Infantino confirming that video referees will be used at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

Rodgers said: “If you assess a lot of yellow cards I would be nearly positive that up to 50% of them would be reds. If there was video technology at our game at the weekend they would have lost a player after three minutes.”

Top: the tackle on Liam Boyce that earned Scott Brown a red card which has now been overturned on appeal. Above: Moussa Dembele has not been ruled out of the Scottish Cup final.