Aberdeen manager Stephen Glass will be thrilled if he sees future coaching colleague Scott Brown sitting idle when Celtic visit Pittodrie tonight.
The Hoops captain is set to face Aberdeen for the final time tonight with his next visit to Pittodrie being when he officially joins the Dons as player-coach this summer.
Glass is delighted to have Brown on board for next season, but is in no doubt his side’s hopes of getting a result will be boosted if the Hoops skipper is not in action against his future club tonight.
The Dons boss said: “I don’t want their best players playing and I think Scott Brown is one of their best players.
“I would be delighted if he sat at the side, but they do have a very good group of players anyway.
“They have people desperate to show they should be the next Scott Brown at the club.
“It is not my decision if Scott plays or not. I do know if he does play what he will offer the team.
“I know what his mentality will be and not because he is coming here, but my preference is that he doesn’t play.”
With a Scottish Cup quarter-final against Dundee United on Sunday to look forward to, it would be understandable if Glass had one eye on the New Firm derby, but he insists the league remains just as important for his club as the Dons try to catch Hibernian in the race for third place.
He said: “We have the potential to finish third and to do well in the cup. We don’t know what one is the best avenue at the minute.
“We know if we win the cup then you get into the furthest stage of Europe so that is the biggest incentive if you like.
“We want to finish as high as we can. Tomorrow we will put out as strong a team as we possibly can and, once that game is finished, we will start looking towards Sunday.”
Dons goalkeeper Joe Lewis will not feature against the Hoops after suffering a rib injury in Saturday’s Scottish Cup fourth round win against Livingston, but Glass’ fears the captain’s injury would rule him out for the rest of the campaign have been allayed.
Glass said: “He is still in a bit of pain. He took a real whack to his ribs. They are not broken, which is great, but when you take a whack to the ribs you know it is a sore one.”
Glass has not put a timescale on when Lewis will return, but said: “As with any player, you want them back as quickly as you can.
“Some of it is within pain thresholds, when you hurt your ribs at the best of times, but with a goalkeeper you are a little bit more exposed, you are landing on it and really stretching when you dive.
“We need to be careful with him that it doesn’t get worse if he tries to do something too early.”