‘Duffy needed a rest… it was just a little bit of rotation’

will be a doubt for Norway I would imagine,” said Lennon, with an international fortnight now ahead.

“Duffy needed a rest. He has played a lot of games. It was unfortunate we lost Kris again with the groin problem but Shane came on and did a fine job for us.

" It was just a little bit of rotation. You could say the same about leaving Edouard out. We felt it was the right thing to do. He’s not been himself since the Covid thing.

"He comes on, sets up a goal, so it has been a good day for us. But we still have a lot of work to do.”

Lennon had praise for the strong performance from Scott Brown at Fir Park, following a period when both Lennon and his captain have come under unforgiving scrutiny. “He was great,” said the Celtic manager. “We told him to go out and play with a swagger and he did that, I thought he had an outstanding influence. He’s a great captain.

"He’s had a bit of criticism and he’s not averse to it, but all the greats at Celtic have taken a bit of criticism along the way. He’s responded to it the way I knew he would. There is no way I was going to leave him out.”

Lennon confess es that the dozen or so players he will now lose to the countries will lead to a fraught 10 days for him following the Covid-19 problems that ensued from the last such break.

“We want them all to repre sent their country but we don’ t want a repeat of what happened last time, through no fault of the club’ s ,” he said .“We want the associations to look after our players, which we expect them to do.”