HE helped to launch Scott Brown’s playing days 20 years ago when he took a chance on an awkward kid from rural Fife in a Hibernian Under-18 match against Ross County up in Dingwall.

But Donald Park doesn’t think the Celtic midfielder’s career is, even though he has lost his first team place at Parkhead this season, set to come to an end any time imminently.

He just isn’t sure what capacity his old protégé will want to continue in going forward.

“Scott will have the passion to play for as long as he can,” said Park, the former Hibs, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Hearts and SFA coach who received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the UK Coaching Awards last month.

“His desire is incredible. He drives all the players around him on. He has got a fantastic attitude, a personality that demands a lot of other people. He drags them along in his slipstream. He can, too, play on for Celtic quite comfortably with all the strengths he has got. He can play anywhere and enhance the team.”

Yet, Brown’s boyhood mentor has been involved in the game for long enough to understand that his ex-pupil may not get the chance to make the decision on his future himself.

“Celtic will have been searching madly to try and replace Scott because he isn’t going to go on forever,” said Park. “But how do they find a replacement for him? There are all the other aspects, not just the football aspects, that he brings to the team. It’s a very big hole to fill.

“Is wee Callum McGregor going to be able to fill in for him? He has got a different set of skills. But he is a good player and has played in Scott’s position. And Ismaila Soro has been playing recently and has done very well indeed.

“Scott is 35 now. He is determined to play and he will want to play in every game. But he isn’t stupid. He will have that realisation that maybe he can’t. Sometimes players can’t govern situations, sometimes it boils down to circumstances. Very few players get the choice.

“He has done well to play to the age he is, especially when you consider how old he was when he started, just 17. He has played in an incredible number of first team games. He hasn’t had huge injuries which has helped.”

Park, though, knows that the talismanic Celtic skipper has a great deal to offer as a coach when he does finally decide to blow the whistle on his time as a player. He feels the Parkhead club would be well advised to offer him a role when he finally does so.

“He is very keen on coaching,” he said. “Hopefully he will go on and do that when he eventually hangs up his boots, whenever that may be. I am sure there will be a position at Celtic. I would hope there would be anyway.

“He has now done his A licence. When he first came down to Largs to do his B Licence he was a bit unsure of himself. But he got into it and was great with all of the other guys. Members of the public were on the course and he was absolutely fantastic with all of them.

“He is a great guy, a really genuine guy. He isn’t the person you see on the football pitch. He is a completely different individual off the park. He is very caring. But on the pitch? Oh boy! He is so driven. Which is great.”

Park continued: “Celtic will maybe go to him and say they would like him to go onto the coaching staff. Would that make up his mind about retiring? He might decide ‘now is the time’ if they do.

“I am sure Neil (Lennon) will have thought about it and I am sure he and Scott will have spoken about it. Lenny has done great with him, but he has been great for Lenny.

“I certainly hope he stays in the game because he has a lot to offer. I am not saying he is going to retire next week. He can certainly play on I just hope he gets what he deserves when he does because he has given Celtic an awful lot.”

Park has enjoyed seeing Brown’s inexorable rise – from breaking into the first team at Hibs, to winning his move to Celtic, to being capped by Scotland, to becoming one of the most decorated players in the history of the game in this country - over the years.

But he was always confident the youngster he worked with at Easter Road would go on and do well because of his ability, intelligence and work ethic.

“It has been great to be a small part of his journey,” he said. “It has been nice to watch him mature. He has had a fantastic career with Celtic and Scotland.

“He wasn’t an out-and-out winger, but he played on the right side of the Hibs youth team. We had good players in the spine of the side. We just wanted to give him an opportunity and see how he did.

“He was a wee bit quieter at that point. But there was always a bit about him, always an edge. He just kicked on and on and on. He matured into a fantastic player with great confidence.

“He became the pivot, if you like, of the team. He made himself available for the ball at all times. He really grasped the nettle and pushed on to the next level. There is, no matter what you do, no substitute for hard work.”

Park himself has certainly done that over the years. That was recognised when the 67-year-old was honoured at the UK Coaching Awards last month. Typically, Brown led the tributes on that proud occasion.

“I really appreciated that,” he said. “It is nice when people say nice things. But I am not sure how much influence I actually had. I sometimes think he did well in spite of me not because of me!”