Alistair Johnston will face off against some of his Celtic team-mates later this year.
That’s because his Canada side have announced a friendly against Japan (Canada). The match will take place in Niigata on October 13, with Johnston set to come up against the likes of Daizen Maeda, Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate.
The Celtic full-back has been missing for the entirety of this season. Johnston underwent ankle surgery in the summer, and was estimated to be out for six to eight weeks by Brendan Rodgers.
That diagnosis arrived in mid-July though, so hopes are high that we’ll see him back in action over the next month. Certainly by the middle of October.
Johnston missed out on Celtic’s recent trip to Japan through injury so it is kind of nice that he’ll get to visit the country after all, albeit on international duty.
Also detailed in the Canada announcement was news that the men’s national team wouldn’t play matches in the September break.
“Competitive needs” and “financial constraints” were the terms used in the statement outlining why matches haven’t been organised.
While Canada would probably like to have matches, this is undoubtedly a boost for Celtic in terms of Johnston’s recovery. With him likely to be pretty fragile at that stage, it’s good that his fitness won’t be risked in any meaningless friendlies.
Our Champions League campaign will get started right off the back of that international break. Johnston could well be a vital part of what we try to achieve in that competition.
And who doesn’t want to see him play against Kyogo after that?
In other news, Lagerbielke, Mbuyamba and the centre-back setup Brendan Rodgers desires
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