Mikey Johnston and Liam Scales are set to get an opportunity to impress new Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers this week after both were included in the squad trip to Portugal this week.
Photo agency SNS were at Glasgow Airport earlier today to take snaps of the players heading off to the Algarve, where they will play two matches against Portuguese top-flight side Portimonense at a state-of-the-art training centre.
Johnston and Scales were both in attendance alongside the rest of Celtic’s returning international players. The Japanese group who headed off to their homeland this summer are thought to be flying straight to Portugal rather than coming back to Glasgow first.
Johnston spent last season out on loan at Vitoria Guimaraes, while Scales was part of Aberdeen’s roller-coaster season in the Scottish Premiership. Both will now be assessed before a determination is made on their futures.
It would be a big comeback for either of them to make their way back into first-team plans for the coming campaign. Johnston struggled badly with injuries prior to his loan departure and increasingly looked to be on the fringes. Scales, meanwhile, has only managed to make 13 appearances in total for the club.
Younger players such as Rocco Vata and Bosun Lawal have also made the trip, per the photographs. So it’s a big week for many talents who haven’t quite yet proven themselves at the Bhoys.
Celtic play Portuguese side Portimonense twice over the next six days at ‘The Campus’, though neither match is expected to be shown live by the club’s streaming service.
We should get a much better look at how the squad is shaping up when the Bhoys travel to Japan for matches against Yokohama F.Marinos and Gamba Osaka.
In other news, Jota sends heartfelt farewell video to Celtic support on Instagram.
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