CELTIC could potentially be crowned Scottish champions for the ninth season running on Thursday if UEFA give the SPFL the all clear to bring an end to the Ladbrokes Premiership season prematurely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The 42 senior clubs last week passed a resolution which gave the board the power to call time on the top flight once they get the green light from their European counterparts – and that could happen following a meeting of the executive committee.

Yet, Neil Lennon would much rather learn that the 2019/20 campaign can be played to completion when the football shutdown is lifted later this year so that his players can achieve the record-equalling feat on the park.

The prospect of the Parkhead men - who were 13 points clear of Rangers with eight matches to play when the suspension was introduced back on March 13 as a result of the Covd-19 outbreak - being declared title winners on a points per game basis had angered many in the game.

Fans of their city rivals, who could theoretically catch and then overtake the current leaders, are particularly upset at the prospect.

However, Lennon’s preference is for Celtic to finish the fixture list in the summer months - if the government and governing bodies give the go-ahead for that to happen – and he stressed that his charges feel exactly the same way.

Asked by Celtic TV if he would like to complete the current campaign, he said: “If we can go back and play the games – I think have to underline that. Everyone at the club – the players, myself, my backroom staff, the fans – want to play the games. Whether that can be achieved or not, that’s another thing.

“It feels like an age away since we played our last game against St Mirren at home, so in terms of keeping the players motivated, keeping them occupied, their own self-motivation is still very, very strong.

“The only thing they’re asking me is when can they get back to training as a group and when can we all start back again, but, obviously, no-one has an answer to that at the minute.”

Celtic were put under intense pressure from Rangers during the first half of the season and the Ibrox club pulled to within two points of them with a 2-1 triumph at Parkhead in the final game before the winter shutdown at the end of December.

However, Lennon has been delighted with the treble treble winners’ form in 2020 – they have won nine and drawn one of their 10 Premiership matches – and has complete confidence they could close out the league given the opportunity.

“I thought the first half of the season was superb, but the second half was just as good, particularly domestically,” he said. “We’d only dropped two points in so many league games and we were making a brilliant challenge again for the Scottish Cup, and we’re in the semi-final.

“I was delighted with individual performances but also the team as a collective was outstanding. Defensively, as a unit, we’ve been functioning great. We even changed the formation and they were very flexible with that as well and adapted to that brilliantly. The football we were playing was fast, free-flowing and we were scoring a lot of goals.

“I was so pleased with players coming back from injury as well. We actually only had one injury at that stage, which was to Michael (Johnston) out of the whole group, so in terms of the fitness levels and their appetite for playing, at that stage they had the real bit between their teeth and we were just rampaging through the league at the time."

Lennon admitted that he has sympathy with Scott Brown and his team mates because they have been deprived the opportunity to clinch another piece of silverware on the park in front of their thousands of supporters.

“The players are the ones who’ve lost out the most in terms of the opportunity to play in front of the supporters,” he said. “We’re going for nine-in-a-row and a quadruple treble, and I feel sorry for them at this stage, in a footballing sense.

“Hopefully at some stage it can be started up again, but if not, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens and the outcomes of what that is going to be.”

The Northern Irishman, though, knows that sporting matters are insignificant in comparison with the fight that society is currently waging against the deadly coronavirus and he paid a heartfelt tribute to the NHS workers who are on the frontline in that ongoing battle.

“They’re putting their lives on the line,” Neil Lennon said. “This is a virus which is new and there is no ready-made cure for it, and these people are going out there helping to save lives, day in, day out, and putting their own life and health at risk, and it’s amazing.

“Probably things that we took for granted for a long time in our lives has all suddenly changed, and my thoughts and prayers are with them all the way, and the Celtic support would echo that as well.

“We’re hoping that this comes to an end sooner rather than later, and we can get back to some sort of normality for all of us, but these people deserve our unbelievable thanks and gratitude.”