Key Celtic Starter Likely to Miss Start of the Season, Rodgers Confirms

Brendan Rodgers has confirmed that Alistair Johnston will likely miss the start of Celtic’s season, following his extended run in the Copa America with Canada.

Johnston, who has been a key player for Celtic since his arrival 18 months ago, helped lead Canada to an unexpected semi-final berth in the tournament. His team will now comPete in the third-place playoff against Uruguay.

Rodgers expressed pride in Johnston’s achievements but acknowledged the need for the player to rest after an intense summer schedule. “It’s absolutely brilliant, isn’t it? He’s got one more Game to go at the weekend and then he’ll have a breather,” Rodgers said, as quoted by SunSport.

“We were probably anticipating they may not have got to where they have so he would have met us over in America.

“But no, we’ll allow him to have a rest now and then bring him back so that he’ll be ready to join us for the last week.”

This schedule adjustment means Johnston is unlikely to feature in Celtic’s season opener against Kilmarnock on August 4.

In Johnston’s absence, Anthony Ralston is expected to fill in. Ralston, who also participated in the Euros with Scotland, will join the Celtic squad for their upcoming USA tour to ramp up his match fitness in preparation for the new season.

Against Queens Park this week, we saw Tomoki Iwata fill in the duo’s absence, with Josh Dede doing so against Ayr.