Neil Lennon has given a detailed explanation about Mikey Johnston and dropped a strong hint that the winger could start Sunday’s Glasgow derby.
The winger has been in and out of the Celtic side in recent weeks- starting away to Cluj in the Europa League, coming on as a substitute in the League Cup Final and against Aberdeen and St Mirren while missing out against Hibs and Hearts.
With Moi Elyounoussi also missing through injury James Forrest has switched flanks with Ryan Christie taking over on the right. It’s not been ideal for either player but with 11 SPFL wins on the bounce the switches have hardly blown Celtic of course.
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Asked about Mikey Johnston and the dilemma/problem his return poses Lennon said:
It’s a welcome problem, obviously Mikey has had his injury problems. We’ve not been able to start him, just give him 20 minutes here, 30 minutes there. If we had started him yesterday (at St Mirren) we probably wouldn’t have had him available for Sunday so it was important to bear that in mind.
I know people are saying that we are rejigging things a bit, if we had more players available I wouldn’t have to.
It’s not ideal playing Ryan on the right at times when we want him at 10 or Jamesy on the left but it’s been no big difference. We’ve been winning the games, Ryan has been scoring the goals from that position, Jamesy got his 14th last night. Ideally, we would want Mikey fully fit because he’d have a great chance of starting, we will look at that today, see how he is, he’s a dynamic player, he’s very exciting but we just want to give him a run of games where he is fit and healthy. He’s had so many niggles and little problems as he’d gone along.
Jonny Hayes is likely to be available for Sunday’s match but after playing in the last two matches Boli Bolingoli is likely to start at left-back.
Lennon will have his squad in tomorrow for a light training session but the focus is all on relaxing ahead of the ninth and final match of December before the players enjoy a three week break before returning to a Scottish Cup tie away to Partick Thistle.