Scott Brown's announcement that he is retiring from international football after more than a decade of pulling on the lion rampant doesn't come without reflection.

The 31-year old Scotland captain has made the decision in an attempt to prolong his playing career at Celtic after a string of long term and niggling injuries.

It leaves a vacant space in Gordon Strachan's midfield ahead of the upcoming squad announcement for September's 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign opener against Malta.

Back in 2005 Walter Smith described Brown as a "chirpy wee lad" with Gordon Strachan recently saying "Scottish football would be a duller place without him."

Brown bows out with 50 caps over 11 years so isn't short of highs and lows on the international stage. We look back on some of the most defining.

After 13 youth caps, Brown made the step up to the senior side when he was still a Hibernian player in 2005.

Walter Smith handed him his debut in a home friendly against USA as a 75th minute substitute when the score was already, as it would finish, 1-1.

It wasn't to pan out as he would have wanted though. He found the net in what should have been a dream start to his international career but the referee chalked it off.

Still to this day Brown insists it wasn't offside.

It's easy to forget players are supporters too, and no one fits that bill more than Brown when it comes to the international team.

While the Tartan Army will long remember the 1-0 victory in Paris as one of Scotland's greatest results in recent years, Brown also described it as one of his career highlights.

While James McFadden was scoring a wonder strike, Brown was preventing some of the French greats from breaking them down at the opposite end.

"It's always going to stick in my mind," he said when he reflecting earlier this year. "We matched them, although our goalie had to make some great saves. I was nowhere near Faddy when he scored - I was blowing out of my a***. I only had about three touches in the whole game.

"I remember Alan Hutton and I were on the right, up against Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka. We were the young kids facing two of their most experienced players.

"I've been lucky to be on the pitch for Scotland against some great players and we have matched most of them. We seem to play better against the best teams."

The Euro 2008 qualifying campaign offered some of Scotland's greatest highs and heartbreaking lows in the last two decades but few come close to the 2007 Italy defeat.

Qualification was within touching distance after taking points off some of Europe's strongest teams but Alex McLeish's side couldn't replicate their outstanding achievements at the final hurdle.

Under a thunderous downpour at Hampden Scotland suffered the last minute goal, which came from a scandalous free kick, wrongly awarded against Alan Hutton, which defined yet another glorious defeat.

It was the closest Brown came to qualifying for a major tournament and arguably the one he deserved to feature in the most as well.

Despite a demoralising campaign which included a 4-0 defeat to Norway and a 3-0 loss to Holland there was still a smidgen of hope going into the penultimate game.

Looking to grasp a way into the 2010 World Cup by being one of the best group runners-up, Scotland had to beat Macedonia and Holland in the home double header.

They achieved the first part of the task, winning 2-0 but lost 1-0 to the Dutch four days later.

Brown opened the scoring with a second-half header which curled around the defence and under the goalkeeper to nestle into the bottom corner.

It was his first of three goals for Scotland, his others came against Poland, Norway and Czech Republic.

Brown had a history of ankle injuries earlier in his career but the one he suffered in the Denmark friendly represented his constant battle with the treatment table.

He played just 19 minutes of the 2-1 win before a robust challenge with Simon Kjaer forced him out of the game.

Although he went on to play for both club and country in the weeks that followed, Brown then broke down in a game against Rangers, forcing him to see a specialist and spend a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

It may not have been the start of his problems but it was more evidence that Brown dug himself an early grave by trying to play his way to fitness.

On paper this looks nothing more than a friendly defeat but in the context of Brown's career it's so much more.

To say he has captained his country in an Auld Enemy clash, at Wembley, where his side scored two goals will live long in his memory as a career high.

He was awarded the captaincy earlier that year when Gordon Strachan took charge and Darren Fletcher was sidelined through illness and retained the armband since.

James Morrison and Kenny Miller's goals may not have impacted the overall result that night in London but it is a fixture the players and supporters will always have fond memories of.

With Scotland riding the curve of an upward trajectory, this was seen as a defining game in the team's efforts to qualify for the 2016 European Championships.

Strachan's side looked to have worked themselves into a strong position in the group with victory over Republic of Ireland. There was a genuine belief the 18-year wait for a major tournament appearance was about to end.

Brown was instrumental as Scotland claimed a crucial win on his home patch at Celtic Park, with Hampden Park still being converted following its use for the Commonwealth Games.

Shaun Maloney's winning goal will go down as one of the best strikes scored by a Scotland player in recent memory, but Brown was an important member of the supporting cast.

The 2007 defeat to Georgia, which ultimately halted Scotland's run to the 2008 European Championships is now widely regarded as an infamous nadir of the national team's recent history. Surely it couldn't happen again? Well, it did.

He may not have played in the 2-0 embarrassment but Br own was part of the team that suffered another damaging defeat in Georgia in 2015.

The defeat didn't quite have the impact it had eight years before, but nonetheless, it was illustrative of how Scotland's efforts to make it to France tailed off in the second round of fixtures.

Just like many others who played that night, Brown probably doesn't want to return to Georgia in a hurry.

With the failed Euro 2016 qualification campaign behind them, Scotland started a new cycle with a friendly win over Denmark in March, in which Brown picked up his 50th national team cap.

At the time it wasn't known that this would be Brown's last appearance in a Scotland shirt, but tributes were paid to the midfielder as he reached the milestone.

The victory over Denmark turned talk towards preparations for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but Brown will play no part in that campaign.

Strachan will now have to plan for life without his captain and midfield stalwart. Someone like John McGinn, who made his Scotland debut against Denmark, could now enter the fold.