Celtic star suffers fresh injury setback on brink of return

The Canadian international was expected to make a return for Celtic in the coming weeks but pulled up in a training session while on international duty.

Johnston initially tore his hamstring in August against Kairat Almaty.

He returned two months later only to further damage it, necessitating surgery.

In recent weeks, Johnston had made progress in his recovery, which led to Celtic allowing the 27-year-old to train with the Canadian national team during friendlies against Iceland and Tunisia.

However, his condition worsened during the training, resulting in another delay to his long-awaited return.

Manager Martin O'Neill said: "Alistair [Johnston] 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.

"But it has delayed things a little bit here."

Despite the setback, Celtic remain hopeful that Johnston will feature before the season ends.

O'Neill added: "Don't hold me to this," "But there must be a fairly good chance that he [Johnston] will play here [Celtic] before the end [of the season]."

The manager also explained that Johnston went for light training with Canada to benefit from the change of environment as he had not joined them for some time.

The decision appeared sensible given that he is a significant player for Canada, who have the World Cup coming up.

However, the setback on the final day proved unwelcome.

Celtic's injury woes extend beyond Johnston, with several players out, including Jota, who has been out for nearly a year.

Amid social media rumours suggesting doubts about his career, O'Neill moved to quash these, saying: "He's [Jota] been out for a long time. In his rehab, he's had a couple of setbacks.

"Just when he thinks he's going great, he gets a bit of a setback.

"I would be hoping that whoever is going to be in charge of the football club, that Jota would be ready for pre-season. That's what I would be hoping for."

He reassured Celtic supporters saying: "I don't see this as being a career-threatening injury.

"If Celtic fans are worried because of the length of time he's taken, I'd try and assure them that he will recover from this."

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