Celtic manager opens door to unlikely first-team return

Celtic have undergone quite a bit of change in recent times. The biggest one was of course the departure of Ange Postecoglou and the return of Brendan Rodgers as his replacement. With the arrival of the Northern Irishman, the team’s playing style has changed a bit and so has the status of some players.

The greatest example of this is Liam Scales. Not even the most optimistic fan of the defender would have imagined that he would be a regular starter come October. In fact, it had looked like he was on the verge of leaving in the summer.

Fortunately, that did not happen. A series of injuries at centre-back meant that not only did Scales end up staying but he got first-team chances as well. And it is safe to say that he took them with both hands.

It remains to be seen if any other fringe players end up turning around their fortunes over the coming weeks and months. There has been some discussion around Mikey Johnston lately, as he impressed on international duty recently even though he is yet to play a single minute of football for Celtic this season.

Celtic boss opens door to unlikely first-team return

As reported by Football Scotland, Rodgers said about the situation of Johnston:

"“For me between the end of the window and January he had to prove that he could stay fit, stay robust and build up his football fitness and we’ll see if we can get him some game time, because he’s a talented player.“Thankfully he’s been able to do that, gone away with the national team and got minutes and we’ll see between now and January if he gets that game time. He gets the chance to prove that every day in training and he looks strong.”"

Johnston was considered as a future first-team star while coming through the youth ranks at Celtic. And he showed signs of that while first breaking into the senior side as well. But his career has not gone as expected, largely due to injury problems.

He spent last season out on loan at Vitoria SC and played a decent amount of football, raising hopes that he had put his injury problems behind him. However, he has been dealing with fitness issues once again this season. It remains to be seen if the Irish international can get some game time moving forward in Rodgers’ side.