Watch as Alistair Johnston steps up his return from injury

Alistair Johnston has been spotted training on his own at Lennoxtown this morning.

The big news was the return of Kaper Hogh and Kieran Tierney to training with both expected to be in contention for Wednesday’s match against St Johnstone.

Hogh has missed Celtic’s last three matches with Tierney sitting out the wins over Aberdeen and St Mirren.

Johnston hasn’t played since the 5-1 win away to Kilmarnock on August 9.

The Canadian internationalist was replaced at half-time by Colby Donovan. As well as missing out on crucial matches for Celtic it seems that Johnston also missed out on a potential transfer to Everton.

Last season Johnston had two lengthy absences due to hamstring problems, the second required surgery.

October has been earmarked for Johnston’s return to action, from today’s footage that looks likely with Celtic back in action on October 11 at Motherwell following the first international break.

There has been ups and downs which is exactly from someone that turned 20 this week.

Last week against Aberdeen he was in top form but found the going tougher away to St Mirren.

Over the next 12 days Celtic face a hectic schedule with Donovan likely to be heavily involved.

St Johnstone on Wednesday is the natural priority but a defining eight day period is just around the corner.

Celtic would have preferred to be in the Champions League but instead face Ferencvaros next Thursday in the Europa League.

Either side of that there are two Glasgow Derbies.

The pressure on those fixtures has been cranked up with last week’s announcement that those games will be played without any away fans present.

Martin O’Neill is expected to host a media conference to preview the match away to St Johnstone.