Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Rangers vs Celtic - Ibrox, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - January 2, 2023 Rangers' John Lundstram in action with Celtic's Alistair Johnston Action Images via Reuters/Lee Smith
The Sun has reported that Alistair Johnston has suffered a ‘suspected fracture’ during Celtic’s 2-1 victory over Hibs.
The suspected fracture is presumably to his cheekbone after the defender was on the wrong end of a late and reckless challenge that earned Celtic a penalty- but at a cost.
Johnstone required four minutes of treatment in the penalty box before he was stretchered off, Adam Idah scored from the penalty with Tony Ralston coming off the bench to replace the Canadian.
Slow motion replays of the incident didn’t look good with Johnston looking to be knocked out and landing awkwardly on the turf.
Celtic star Alistair Johnston has ‘suspected fracture’ in head knock and won’t play in Scottish Cup says Brendan Rodgershttps://t.co/Yilsm2qdKy pic.twitter.com/AuFjDuNFZ4
— Scottish Sun Sport (@scotsunsport) February 9, 2024
Ralston should continue at right-back on Sunday against St Mirren and could be in for an extended run in the team if a fractured cheekbone is the diagnosis.
It will probably take the swelling and bruising to calm down before a full verdict and recovery timeline can be given but it would seem unlikely that Johnston will play again this month as a minimum.
For Fcuks sake – potentially out for a month…
We are cursed with bloody injuries this season –
This wasn’t a player made of glass but the victim of a brutal assault in the thugland That is Scotland when it comes to football…
Kyogo hasn’t kicked a ball since that headbutt from the Aberdeen thug at Parkhead –
So whose turn is it to be maimed on Sunday then !
You see this run of injuries is showing up how unprepared we are and how the board and recruitment process is highly inadequate.
We have paid heavily for the mistakes in the summer, we needed at least 3 first team ready players and got cheap projects. When a window is a failure the next one is even more vital, that’s 4 in a row since Mark Lawell joined. Not acceptable and change is a must.
Apparently in Scotland it’s not as serious to injure a player’s head with a reckless collision of heads, than it is to injure someone’s leg with a reckless tackle.
This country truly lives in the Dark Ages.
When I saw the clash of heads and the ref point to the spot , I waited for the card to come out , still waiting . It was a straight red . Why was it not given it was a late and dangerous challenge where was VAR , the defender didn’t go for the ball he went straight for the man .
It was a sickening challenge with a player ending up in hospital but again nothing done by the authorities , and we lose a player for up to a month.
Speedy recovery Alister.
By the way forget the Blue card idea , 10 minutes in the bin for a yellow and like Rugby Union if it is a serious incident VAR have 8 mins to decide if it is a yellow or upgraded to a red .
Let’s face it, the way Kieren Tirney was treated and physically assaulted on the field was a signal that thuggery against our players, our best players, was going to be tolerated!
With that threat and that level of abuse, no wonder Tierney was off!
And there was not even not a mutter of complaint about it from our Board of Directors!
Silence is not an optoin on such instances and they are guilty of cowardice; of not standing up to be counted when it matters. Shame on them!
And so, that is the way it is to this day!
The failure of the Board to back the team in that instance caused the break-up of that particular team and away with it went our chance to compete seriously in Europe.
Also as a consequence, Brendan Rodgers was off and left as well!
That is the culpability of our Board. They were guilty of doing nothing when they should have acted in the interests of the Club to protect our players and their employees!
As far as I am concerned the Board are cowards. They are a bunch of money grabbing (place in your own explatives) who fail to stand up for the interests of our Club.
They have failed in their professional duties and should be gotten rid of asap for the sake of Celtic Football Club.