Celtic warmed up for the second leg of their third qualifier - where they trail 1-0 from the first game - by slumping to a 2-1 friendly defeat against Sunderland at Parkhead.

The one positive was the return of Brown whose end-of-season ankle surgery had ruled him out of previous pre-season games.

The Scotland midfielder played for an hour and will be in the Hoops' squad for the trip to Moscow but Mowbray dampened down expectations of a glorious return.

He said: "The big positive was that we got 60 minutes from Scott Brown and I'm pretty sure as the season progress he will have a big part to play.

"We have to wait and see what reaction he has on Monday but I don't feel a great urgency. "I know Scott had a great season last year but I don't feel a great urgency to think that our game on Wednesday is down to whether Scott Brown is fit or not.

"He is a fantastic footballer, a wonderful personality but we have shown over the last month or so that we are more than capable when we have our strongest team on the field.

"I don't see that changing whether Scott is on the field or not.

"Fitness is not a major problem, he tore around the pitch, he will be fine it's whether we can fit him in to the dynamics of the team.

"We have been working on shape and Scott has not been involved in that so we will wait and see."

Mowbray utilised most of his squad ahead of the trip to Moscow.

Goals either side of the break from Kieran Richardson and Kenwyne Jones gave the visitors a well-deserved lead until Hoops midfielder Marc Crosas put a better spin on proceedings when he pulled a goal back.

Mowbray was unconcerned about the result, saying: "These are fitness exercises.

"I felt it was a strange atmosphere in the dressing room and they looked lethargic.

"I think the performance showed that, it wasn't until the last half hour when McGeady, Maloney, McDonald and Donati came on.

"Maybe it was something to do with going to Australia, then going to Cardiff and then playing a couple of games in London, I don't know.

"But I was never tempted to play my strongest side, the bigger issue is Wednesday night."

Sunderland boss Steve Bruce ruled out keeper Craig Gordon from Scotland's World Cup qualifier against Norway in Oslo on Wednesday week.

Gordon has missed the Black Cats' pre-season with a knee injury and Bruce believes the game in Oslo will come too soon.

He said: "The last two days have seen a great improvement but I have to be brutally honest and say that as far as the Norway goes, he would find that difficult.

"He has not done a day's training yet with us so I think it would be a big risk and would be highly unlikely that he would be involved."