MOTHERWELL, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 02: Celtic's Jota celebrates after scoring to make it 3-1 during a William Hill Premiership match between Motherwell and Celtic at Fir Park, on February 02, 2025, in Motherwell, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
Celtic’s social media team shared a short video clip of Jota at Lennoxtown this morning.
The winger has been out injured since April last year with very little in the way of updates on his rehab.
During Celtic’s pre-season trip to the Algarve Martin O’Neill mentioned that Jota would be returning to the grass of Lennoxtown without laying out any timeline for a playing comeback.
Jota was filmed walking towards the training pitch with Johnny Kenny.
The SNS Group, Celtic’s media partner published several pictures of Jota involved in training. Running with the ball, twisting and turning.
Tellingly there was no sign of O’Neill in the training shots with Shaun Maloney prominent.
O’Neill isn’t always heavily involved on the training ground but 48 hours before Matchday he is normally involved on the pitch.
On Wednesday Celtic issued a brief statement about O’Neill being in hospital to undergo a small procedure.
— Charlene ? (@charlenemcg) August 7, 2026
Just seeing Jota back at training will be a major boost for the entire club.
JOTA- THE SUPERSTAR FROM PORTUGAL
From September 2021 to June 2023 the former Benfica man was a central figure at the club.
A key player and big personality with his own song. Against Dundee on Monday night there were no chants for individual players.
It is unlikely that Celtic will give out anything other than the vaguest of timelines for Jota returning to action.
It will take a couple of weeks of increasingly his workload on the training pitch to assess where he is in terms of fitness.
At the start of September Celtic will have to register their squad for whatever UEFA competition they take part in.
With group stage fixtures running through to January it would seem a reasonable expectation that Jota will feature in some of those matches.
After numerous injury issues last season Celtic seem to be kicking off the new season without any injury issues, with the exception of Jota.
? Focus turns to Rugby Park#KILCEL | #CelticFC? pic.twitter.com/auS64p58qU
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 7, 2026
What a Shota to hear Jota is back to full training !