Mikey Johnston will miss the first few months of the season due to a back injury.
The winger spent last season on loan at Vitoria Guimaraes where he did enough to earn his first caps in the Irish international side.
With Celtic under ‘new’ management Johnston was hoping to impress the boss that had given him his Celtic debut but that plan has been put on hold.
The Irish Independent reports Brendan Rodgers saying:
Sadly for Mikey he is going to be out for a few more months. He had an issue with his back, sadly, so he’ll probably be out for near-on three months.
His job is to convince myself and the coaches that he is ready for a place. It’s the players’ responsibility and they have to show the quality and consistency and robustness in order to play and that is the job of every player.
The timing of the latest set-back could hardly have been worse for Johnston, with Jota sold to Al Ittihad Celtic are down one winger even though the untried Marco Tilio has been signed from Melbourne City.
While the Aussie winger gets the chance to impress Rodgers it is back to the drawing board for Johnston with a back injury severely limiting the work that he can do away from the training ground.
Last night The Sun announced that an injury picked up on international duty was likely to rule Alistair Johnston out of the start of the new season, the defender hasn’t yet been involved in pre-season training.
