Celtic winger Mikey Johnston suffers major injury blow ahead of new season

Brendan Rodgers has confirmed that Celtic winger Mikey Johnston is set to be out for up to three months at the start of the season due to a back injury.

Johnston spent last season out on loan to Portuguese side Vitória de Guimarães having played an important role in their sixth place finish in the league. During that spell, he also switched international allegiance and opted to play for the Republic of Ireland with the player being given his first international cap against Latvia back in March. He scored his first international goal for Ireland last month in a 3-0 victory against Gibraltar during a Euro 2024 qualifier.

The 24-year-old would have hoped to once again impress boss Brendan Rodgers who handed the winger his Celtic debut back in May 2017 alongside fellow academy star Anthony Ralston. Rodgers confirmed the injury saying: “Sadly for Mikey Johnston, he’s going to be out for a few more months. He’s got an injury with his back. He will be out for near on three months.”

He was highly rated by former boss Ange Postecoglou who thought that he would benefit from playing regular first team football which was the reason for sending him out on loan last season. After the departure of Jota, it was expected that Johnston would be pushing to try and stake his claim in the team which has once again been hindered by injury.