It says much about Scott Brown this season that he has been most notable these past few weeks by his absence.

Scotland is one matter, Celtic another.

Having tweaked a hamstring in the win over Aderlecht in the club’s last Champions League outing, Brown has been missing in action for the past three weeks.

Read more: Olivier Ntcham thinks return of Celtic skipper will be huge for Bayern Munich tie​

He is due to return for the game against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night – a Bayern side who walloped Freiburg 5-0 at the weekend – but in his absence at the heart of the Celtic midfield there has been a palpable lack of dominancy in both the game against Hibs and Saturday’s game against Dundee.

Neil McCann’s side made life difficult for Celtic with forgotten keeper Dorus de Vries called upon with a couple of impressive stops to prevent the Dens Park side from taking anything from the occasion.

For Celtic, it was simply another notch on the ladder; 59 and counting.

The Parkhead side are yet to taste domestic defeat under Brendan Rodgers, a consistent run of form that is difficult to underestimate.

Read more: Celtic keeper Dorus de Vries expects to be dropped - but wishes Craig Gordon all the best for Bayern Munich test

Wednesday night’s game, however, is a step into another sphere altogether.

Few would expect Celtic’s chances to benefit much regardless of whether Brown is back or not, such is the magnitude of the task in the Allianz Arena.

However, it has been notable in recent weeks that Celtic miss their captain and his influence when he is not there. Kieran Tierney captained Rodgers’ side in Brown’s absence on Saturday afternoon – a sign of things to come, some would imagine – but Brown’s drive and leadership remains key to how Celtic play.

The Parkhead side effectively took a massive step in securing a Europa League berth with their win in Belgium at the end of last month but still, they will want to avoid coming away from Germany on the back of a morale-sapping walloping.

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Bayern and PSG will be expected to claim the two places for the knockout stages meaning but Celtic will still want to walk out of Munich this week with their head up.

In that respect, Wednesday night’s team will have an entirely different hue to the one who took the points from Dundee.

The expectation is that Craig Gordon will be back between the sticks albeit that De Vries did himself no harm at all with a timely reminder of his presence. Similarly, Jozo Simunovic and Dedryck Boyata will be expected to pair up at the heart of defence with the duo the favoured parternship at the back.

Stuart Armstrong could be back too with his pace and energy important, although one player who can potentially give Celtic something special against Bayern is Patrick Roberts.

In the final, closing minutes of the weekend win, Roberts was spotted indulging in a bit of keepy-uppy, an impudent reminder of the price tag he carries.

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In securing Roberts for another season, Celtic’s belief is that they have a Champions League quality player available to them and it will be interesting to see just how he fares in the remaining games in the tournament given the fact that recent evidence suggests he is getting up to full speed.

The player did not arrive until the final days of the window and although he had gone through a full pre-season with City, he had not been exposed to much game time.

He would appear to be approaching something of peak fitness now just as Celtic head into an intense period of games.

The Bayern game is one that the club will want to go and compete in but they will also do so with one eye on Saturday’s game against Hibs at Hampden.

Neil Lennon’s side pushed them all the way a few weeks back at Celtic Park, a game that also came on the back of a Champions League away night.

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Lennon himself acknowledged after the game that Hibs had sought to use Celtic’s fatigue to their advantage and it will be the same again this weekend, with even less time to prepare.

As it shapes up to be an interesting week for Rodgers, the Hoops boss was satisfied that Celtic can tick off another box. And having established themselves at the summit of the table, few would expect them to relinquish that position between now and May.

“There are a lot of games that require a lot of concentration and lots of changes for us today,” said Rodgers. “I thought, bearing all of that in mind, to get the result, keep the clean sheet and get the three points was an absolutely brilliant result for us.

“It was about getting the result. It was never going to be as cohesive as usual with so many people missing and very little time to work. What we have is incredible mentality. I said to the players before the game that we’re going into a run of fixtures now and champions do that little bit extra."

Read more: Olivier Ntcham thinks return of Celtic skipper will be huge for Bayern Munich tie​

Cristian Gamboa and De Vries both made their first competitive appearances of the season having been rarely spotted over the last year.

“I thought Cristian was excellent today and you see in a game like today why I have Dorus in the team," the manager said. "It's testament to his professionalism and how hard he’s worked.

“It’s been around a year since he last played competitively. This was a nice game for him to come into. He didn’t have a great deal to do, but towards the end when the ball was coming into the box he showed his agility and concentration to make the saves.”