Celtic defender Alistair Johnston has shared an amusing family post as intrigue over his fitness continues.
The Canadian has been a complete revelation since his January switch from CF Montréal. He’s won the hearts and minds of virtually every Celtic supporter, as well as a hat-trick of trophies.
Johnston became an important player for Ange Postecoglou almost instantly. Now the hope is that he can kick-on even further under new Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers.
The full-back has taken to the club about as well as anyone over the past decade, and that seems to extend to his family too if a recent Instagram photo is anything to go by.
Johnston posted on his story on Monday evening, sharing an image of his brothers Malcolm and Declan kitted out in Celtic shirts.
The shirts appear to be Johnston’s own match-worn ones, given that the Cinch and Celtic Foundation logos can be seen on them.
A quick look online shows that Malcolm Johnston is also an aspiring footballer. He plays in the MLS with Vancouver Whitecaps and the Celtic defender has tweeted about him in the past.
It may well be the grey kit from Johnston’s first Hoops goal at St. Mirren that he is wearing in the image.
Johnston’s infectious personality has been missing from Celtic’s social media channels so far in pre-season. He hasn’t been seen in any training photos, and didn’t even seem to be in the club’s recent Pre-Season Unfiltered video.
With almost all of his team-mates back in action, and given that Johnston played in our last competitive match, it’s been an intriguing situation.
The latest we have on Johnston’s fitness is from Canada boss John Herdman around three weeks ago. The full-back played a couple of matches for his country in June, but was then left out of subsequent matches.
As reported by the Glasgow Times, Herdman had said: “Some players need a break to recover from injury. Alistair Johnston was carrying an injury he picked up on club duty with Celtic.
“So we’ve got some young lads that we’ll start looking at for this Gold Cup.”
So, reading between the lines, it seems like Johnston is still not fully up to speed and ready to join in with Celtic training.
Of course, with our first competitive match still three-and-a-half weeks away, there is no need for any great concern.
In other news, Ange Postecoglou says that he and Brendan Rodgers have had many interactions since he departed Japan for Glasgow
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