Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has cleared up the situation with Alistair Johnston and an injury.
Last night, a report suggested that Johnston could miss the start of the season. Sadly, it seems like that is an inevitability, with the Canadian recovering.
Johnston first injured his ankle in our Scottish Cup semi-final win over Rangers in April. He sat out four matches, returning for our final two games of the season as well as a couple of international matches.
But the injury has flared up again since. Rodgers has offered an update at a press conference in Portugal and revealed that Johnston has actually undergone surgery on his ankle.
“Alistair had an issue when he came back from international duty,” Rodgers said, as reported by STV.
“He has a slight problem with his ankle but he’s had that operation on his ankle, it’s been successful and he’s out here with us.
“It’s probably a six to eight week injury but hopefully he’ll be back sooner than that. He’s progressed really well and it’s better to have it done at this stage of the season that some time into the season.”
A six week lay-off would see Johnston miss the start of the competitive action, and in a race against time to be fit for the first derby of the season.
Celtic will likely have to rely on Anthony Ralston for our upcoming matches, although we shouldn’t rule out the club making moves in the transfer window.
Johnston is going to be a big miss but the priority now will be having him back and up to speed by the start of our Champions League campaign in mid-September.
It’s not been a great day to be a Celtic player with the surname Johnston, after news of Mikey’s three-month lay-off was announced earlier.
We hope to see both back in the hoops very soon.
In other news, Odsonne Edouard has sent Moussa Dembele a birthday message
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
