Celtic owned Jack Hendry is keeping an eye on Mikey Johnston's situation

By David Walton

March 18, 2020

Melbourne City’s Celtic defender Jack Hendry has admitted that he’s keeping a close eye on Mikey Johnston’s recovery.

Both he and Johnston both picked up similar setbacks in January. However, despite their injuries being similar, Hendry went for surgery whilst Celtic have chosen to let Johnston’s knock heal naturally.

Hendry only played one game for Melbourne before picking up his knock nearly two months ago. It also cruelly came on the back of him being selected in the A-League’s Team of the Week.

Jack Hendry in action for Melbourne City (Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

And as he continues his recovery phase, the Celtic-owned defender has stated that it’ll be interesting to see how Johnston recovers after he didn’t go for surgery. Speaking in the Scottish Sun, Hendry said the following:

“It is six weeks yesterday since I had the surgery. I am off the crutches and I am quite a bit ahead of the schedule. I basically had to learn how to walk away with my knee. Mikey Johnston got the same injury as me.

“They chose not to operate on him and to let his knee ligaments recover naturally. It will be interesting to see how he gets on.

“They stuck two pins in and stuck it in the structure so it is more stable. It feels good and I can’t wait to get back out on the grass. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career and it is another hurdle to get over and become stronger.”

No sign of Johnston being on the mend just yet

Hendry claims he’s ahead of schedule, and it’s clear that he is. His manager, Erick Mombaerts, stated at the start of the month that Hendry was recovering quicker than expected, and stated that he expected him back in “five or six weeks” (Scottish Sun).

If we’re going by that timeframe, then Hendry is just under three or four weeks away from a full recovery. That’s more than can be said for Johnston, who picked up his own injury before Hendry,

Neil Lennon hasn’t yet provided much of an update on when he’ll be back. The last time he spoke about it, the Celtic boss simply claimed that Johnston’s injury was “long-term” (BBC).

Mikey Johnston (Paul Ursachi/MB Media/Getty Images)

So it doesn’t look as though Mikey will be back ready for action before Hendry. The Celtic loan man also has the luxury of having some games to look forward to at present. Mikey doesn’t have that, although that could be a good thing considering he has time to recover during an extended break from action.

Regardless, hopefully both men can pick up where they left off when they return. Hendry had made a promising start out in Australia, and looked certain to become a regular in the Melbourne City team.

It will be interesting if that loan deal gets extended into next season given how much action Hendry has missed. In what’s been a Celtic career full of hard knocks, this is just another for the big man to deal with.