Martin O’Neill says Jota is making better progress than expected in his ACL recovery, while Celtic hope Alistair Johnston can beat his October hamstring return date.
Two significant pieces of squad news arrived on the same day, and both carry real weight for Celtic’s autumn run-in. Jota is back in contact training after a long lay-off with an anterior cruciate ligament injury and could be closer to a first-team return than the club initially planned, while Alistair Johnston remains sidelined with the hamstring problem picked up against Kilmarnock but is hoped to return ahead of his scheduled October comeback. There’s more context on Celtic’s current defensive options in this recent injury update covering the St Mirren game.
The update comes from Martin O’Neill, as reported via Herald Scotland. Worth flagging: that piece was written by American colleagues under an exclusive subscriber partnership with USA Today, and the publication itself notes it doesn’t necessarily reflect The Herald’s editorial view. It’s O’Neill’s honest assessment rather than a formal club medical bulletin, and it should be read that way.
The Long Road Back
Jota hasn’t played for Celtic since last April, and his rehabilitation has hardly been straightforward – there have been several setbacks along the way. He was initially pencilled in for a Halloween return and, unsurprisingly given all that, didn’t make the cut for Celtic’s 25-man UEFA Europa League squad this season.
Johnston’s situation is more recent. The Canadian right-back sustained his hamstring issue against Kilmarnock at the start of August and hasn’t featured since, a blow given how heavily Celtic have relied on him down that flank. Squad depth in wide areas has already been a talking point, as covered in our piece on Yang Hyun-jun’s Asian Games absence.
O’Neill’s Own Words
“He’s coming along very well. Again, it’s disappointing to not have him for Europe,” O’Neill said. “He’s been out a long time and who knows, in the last three games in the Europa League we could have done with him.”
“Its been a long time but he’s been doing really well in small-sided matches he’s been involved in. He’s not been stretched too much yet, but that will come over this month. He might be ready more quickly than I thought.”
That’s about as encouraging as these updates get without a manager committing to hard dates – and O’Neill, sensibly, hasn’t. On Johnston, he was equally direct that Celtic are hoping the full-back beats his scheduled October return, though again no firm date was put on it.
What It Means Now
Missing Jota for Europe clearly stings O’Neill, and his own words about the last three Europa League fixtures make that plain. A quicker recovery would eventually hand Celtic another attacking option, though the manager stopped short of naming a target match or laying out how Jota’s return might be sequenced between domestic and European football. For now, both players are being monitored and their workloads will be built up gradually – Jota’s over the coming month as he starts being stretched properly in training, Johnston’s with October as the stated aim. Squad availability for the games in between remains the thing to watch, and we’ll have more as soon as either timeline sharpens up.
Mon The Hoops.
