Celtic defender, Alistair Johnston has been left out of the next Canadian national squad to help him recover from the injury he picked up against Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final last season.
The right-back was out for four weeks after a collision with Borna Barisic led him to be substituted in the 54th minute of the game.
He seemed to have made a full recovery after playing the full 90 minutes in the Scottish Cup Final win against Inverness Caley Thistle this month.
But as 67 Hail Hail touched on yesterday, a report said that Johnston did seem to be struggling during Canada’s 2-0 defeat to the USA in the CONCACAF Nations League Final.
Canada Head Coach John Herdman confirmed that Johnston has been left out of the upcoming Gold Cup squad for the end of June.
After recognising Johnston’s injury, Herdman said [CBC], “We’ve got some young lads that we’ll start looking at for this Gold Cup.
“I’d love to have the same squad filtering over but it won’t happen.”
This is very good news for the Celtic fans. We can ill afford a reoccurrence of the ankle injury that kept one of our best players out for a month last season.
Brendan Rodgers will also be delighted at this news. The Celtic manager will want every player available and ready to go for the beginning of the season.
Celtic also have the Asian Tour coming up in July and will want to maximise our exposure by having as many first-team players available as we possibly can.
Johnston has already proven to be a crucial player for us in the short six months since he signed and there is no doubt he will continue to do so under Brendan Rodgers.
In other news, When Brendan Rodgers’ first Celtic press conference is scheduled
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