Celtic are well an truly back for the new season, even if the competitive action is still to start.
The Hoops have played a few televised pre-season matches so far, and are reaching their peak condition again under new manager Brendan Rodgers.
Pre-season has already seen a few first-team stars break out and impress — most notably Daizen Maeda in a new position — but others haven’t been able to get off the ground yet.
Yes, we are still waiting to see a number of important players make their return from injury.
Cameron Carter-Vickers has probably been the most talked about absentee over the summer. That’s hardly a surprise given his importance to the team and the fact we haven’t seen him since April.
The good news is that he, and Anthony Ralston, have both resumed “full training” at Lennoxtown and we can expect to see them back amongst the action pretty soon.
Alistair Johnston picked up his injury in CCV’s last game for the club — the Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Rangers.
The Canadian did return for the final few matches of the season but it seems like all was not well with his ankle. Rodgers has already confirmed that Johnston underwent surgery in the summer.
“It’s probably a six to eight week injury but hopefully he’ll be back sooner than that,” was what the Celtic manager said. We’re not totally sure when that period began from, but it does seem like Johnston will be out for a few weeks yet.
The other defensive worry is Yuki Kobayashi who landed awkwardly on his ankle in our Japan friendly against Yokohama F. Marinos.
There has been little in the way of news about Kobayashi since, but he wasn’t in the squad for the game against Gamba Osaka a few days later.
In an offensive sense, wingers Marco Tilio and Mikey Johnston are due to sit out for a period of time.
Tilio will miss “a few weeks” according to Rodgers after picking up an injury while playing for Australia.
Johnston’s time out will be months rather than weeks, in the latest frustrating blow for the winger.
Let’s hope we can see all of the players back as soon as possible.
In other news, former Celtic midfielder Aaron Mooy has shared a first look at his new life
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