25 year old Canadian international defender, Alistair Johnston, has made quite the name for himself since making the switch to the Scottish Premiership from Major League Soccer side Montreal Impact.
The now 49 capped international right back progressed through the Canadian system pretty well, and finally attracted the attentions of Celtic back in January 2023, signing for an officially undisclosed amount. The player has already more than established himself in our first team plans, featuring 67 times – with a return of three goals to date.
With him continuing to hit the ground running in our domestic campaign in 2024/25, with five appearances and one goal so far, the Hoops faithful will be expecting even more improvement from him this season as he is now fully settled into the squad, and more than understands what manager Brendan Rodgers wants from him. Johnston has started the season much like Celtic in fairness, we are making the right gambles in an online casino, and our results so far are paying dividends, but every fan knows we are going to need to know when to protect our advantage and not push too far.
Four league games in and we have a 12 goal advantage and have secured four straight wins, including the first of the big ones for bragging rights. Progression in the League Cup has been secured, and we are awaiting our first Champions League clash of the year against Sloven.
With the September international break in full flow right now, many Celtic fans would have feared the worst as Johnston pulled up with an injury in Canada’s recent 2-1 victory over the United States at the weekend, but former Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch was quick to play down any concerns recently.
Initial reports from onlookers suggested that his withdrawal after only 25 minutes into the first half at the Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City ‘didn’t look great’, Marsch was quick to point out that it was more a precautionary measure as opposed to anything else as the player had only reported some ‘tightness’ in his hamstring as opposed to anything that would imply a pull or a strain.
He himself, saw no reason as to why a couple of days rest would not see the player fit and ready to go once again, especially as we are now gearing up for the hosting of Heart of Midlothian this coming weekend.
With Rodgers already having overseen the opening of a five point gap in the Scottish top flight, should Johnston return to contention for the next match, he will no doubt be grateful for Marsch’s precautionary decision here as it means fewer selection headaches for him this week as we look to keep our 100% winning record run going.
Marsch went on to say that he was very ‘hopeful’ that Johnston would be absolutely fine and ‘ok’ given the decision to remove him quickly and not push his involvement in the game, and he also revealed that it was the player himself who had suggested that it would be ‘smarter’ to come off as opposed to pushing it.
He also explained that he trusted the players’ decision because he had done this previously, citing the game against Holland on June 6th where he had a similar tightness issue, and having stepped out of that game, he was able to fully recover and loosen up to play a part in their clash with France.
The Canadian gaffer will be hoping the same plays out true here and that he is available for their final international break clash with Mexico before players return to their domestic clubs.
Rodgers will be optimistic he can still be relied upon.
