Celtic star Alistair Johnston has suffered an injury setback. The player was set to return after the international break, but now, it seems that he will be out for a bit longer.
Speaking about the injury, manager Martin O'Neill said: "Alistair has had a wee bit of a setback. He went away with the Canadian national side, was doing some running and had a bit of a setback on his final day of training, which was really disconcerting for us.
"In the wider scheme of things, for the length of time he’s been out, hopefully it’s not too bad. But it has delayed things a little bit here.
"We were hoping to have him in a couple of weeks, maybe having played some bounce games. That will just have to be parked and put to the side for the moment. It’s a shame.
"He went with the national side and was only ever going to do little bits of training, which is all he did. If we’d had a full quota of payers here, then he’d have stayed with us.
"We felt there might be a benefit of being away with the national side, just in a different environment, as he hadn’t met up with them for some time.
"Obviously, they’ve got the World Cup, and he’s a big player for them. So, we all felt it was the best idea. It was only on the final day that he felt a bit of a niggle."
A big problem for Celtic
There is a big problem at Celtic now. Julian Araujo is still injured, and with Johnston set to miss even more time, that means that the Hoops will have to rely on Anthony Ralston and Colby Donovan.
It's very disappointing that an injury had to happen on international duty. Realistically, he should have been kept at Lennoxtown and trained with the squad, but you can't blame either side for wanting him to get involved with the Canadian national team again.
There is a big World Cup coming up, and it may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Johnston to be able to play in such a prestigious competition in his home country. He will have been doing everything to ensure that he was still involved with the squad, and for him, he'll now be hoping he can recover quickly enough to play in the summer.
Johnston would have been a massive boost for the remainder of the Scottish Premiership, but sadly, the Celts will have to do without him. We can only hope that Araujo's recovery goes well, and hopefully, he can join up with the squad sooner rather than later.