Celtic have been handed a boost after learning that one of their players is set to be available for the Scottish Premiership game vs St. Mirren on Wednesday evening, following a fresh update.
Celtic injury news
The Hoops currently have Liel Abada, Stephen Welsh, Maik Nawrocki and Marco Tilio out on the sidelines with their own respective problems, but the club recently suffered an even bigger setback regarding the fitness of Reo Hatate. The Parkhead midfielder has been ruled out of action until after Christmas having torn his hamstring against Atletico Madrid, but he’s not the only regular feature to have recently given Brendan Rodgers cause for concern north of the border.
During the 0-0 stalemate against Hibernian last weekend, Alistair Johnston took a knock and had to be replaced by Anthony Ralston after just 26 minutes, with the right-back leaving the field early, alleviating fears that he could be facing a spell on the sidelines.
The Canada international has established himself as the green and white’s second best-performing defensive player so far this season (WhoScored – Celtic statistics) so it would have been a huge blow to lose his services, but there has been a positive update to emerge surrounding the 25-year-old.
Alistair Johnston injury upate
Speaking during his pre-match press conference on Monday, Rodgers confirmed that Alistair Johnston will be available for Celtic for their upcoming encounter against Stephen Robinson's side. As quoted by Video Celts, he said:
"Alistair will be fine, it was really just precautionary taking him off, especially with Tony being able to come in and play so he’s (Johnston) came out the game OK. Odin will be back as well which is great, he’s obviously been out for a few games with injury but he’s now been training and back so he’s available for us.
"The other guys, Reo, we’re not 100 percent on the exact timings, but he’s certainly going to be out until after Christmas we think, so that’s a shame. Stephen Welsh is back in training which is good, other than that the others are on course. Liel Abada, probably mid-December. That’s the update."
With Johnston having been described as an “excellent” player by journalist Josh Bunting, Celtic having him at their disposal once again will be a huge boost for Rodgers who will know the hugely positive impact he’s been having since the start of the season.
The Vancouver native, who pockets £17k-per-week (Celtic salaries), is currently averaging 2.1 tackles and 1.5 key passes per league game, highlighting his desire to get stuck in, win back possession for his team and push them as high up the pitch as possible (WhoScored – Johnston statistics).
Scottish Premiership Champion
2022/23
Scottish Cup Winner
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Scottish League Cup Winner
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Since putting pen to paper in January, Johnston has also provided two assists and even scored one goal himself, so he’s capable of getting involved in the final third when bursting down the flank (Transfermarkt – Johnston statistics), therefore, it’ll be a relief for the manager that he’s not done anything serious, and it'll be interesting to see if he's selected from the off.
