We are just days into pre-season training and there is already worrying injury news for Celtic. But the club have faced fitness issues for some time now and that has not stopped them from being successful on the pitch. They are coming off of a treble-winning campaign after all. This is not the start that Brendan Rodgers would have been hoping for though, as he starts his second stint in the Parkhead hot seat.
One player who faced injury problems towards the end of last season is Alistair Johnston. The Canadian international was able to recover in time to take part in the Scottish Cup final against Inverness CT and played a few games for his national team as well. But he clearly had not fully recovered yet.
Johnston has not taken part in pre-season training yet though. And it looks like that is because he has undergone surgery.
As reported by BBC, Rodgers said about the status of Johnston:
"“In the operation, he had a couple of bits removed, which was successful.“It’s probably a six to eight-week injury, but hopefully he’ll be fit sooner than that. He’ll progress really well and better to have it done at this stage than some time during the season.”"
Celtic starter undergoes surgery and out for 6-8 weeks
It was only in the winter transfer window of 2023 that Johnston arrived at Celtic from CF Montreal. But he was successful in immediately establishing himself as one of the best players at the club, and a nailed on starter.
He had been handed the unenviable task of replacing Josip Juranovic in the starting XI, as the Croatian international left for Union Berlin. But Johnston was able to do that perfectly and earned himself a lot of justified plaudits for that. Some even believe that his arrival improved the team.
One can only hope that the Canadian right-back is back to full fitness as quickly as possible. Until then, one would expect Anthony Ralston to take his place in the starting XI and the Scot is solid cover. We would like to wish Johnston the best in his recovery.