John Kennedy’s Celtic story – From career-ending injury to coaching glory

“Years later, he told me: ‘The day I picked your leg up, everything was just moving around. There was nothing holding it together.’ I went to the hospital for the scans. I remember my foot touching the floor and my leg sinking to the outside, like it was just wanting to fall apart. One of the doctors looked at it and said: ‘This injury you don’t really get in football. This is like a car crash.’ That was when the penny dropped. I remember thinking: ‘This could be the end.’

I said: ‘Mum, I’m not sure I’ll ever play football again.’

The gutted Celtic star broke down telling his mum at the time, but then recalled gritting his teeth and being determined to remain strong. “I went home to my family,” he said. “Mum asked me how it was going and that was the first time I broke down. I said: ‘Mum, I’m not sure I’ll ever play football again.’

Then, seeing my mum get so emotional, I thought: ‘I need to steady the ship here.’ So, I said: ‘No, no, I’ll be fine. We’re going to go to America and see what happens.’ And it unfolded from there. I was out for over three years and throughout that time, the one thing that kept me going was the thought of walking back out the tunnel at Celtic Park.

That was the moment I envisioned. The moment when I would say to myself: ‘I’m happy again.’”

“It was Rugby Park and a day when we had the chance to win the league. It was like a fairytale.”

The next occasion he would feature competitively would be when Gordon Strachan’s side conquered Kilmarnock at Rugby Park, with a last-gasp Shunsuke Nakamura free-kick sealing the deal for the Hoops.

Refreshing his memories of that day, he said: “I’d get changed and go upstairs to the gym, which overlooked the walkways and car parks around Celtic Park. I’d put music on, and I’d just run. Through the blinds, you could see the supporters all piling into the stadium. Every step on that treadmill was getting me closer to my goal of walking out of that tunnel and getting back on that pitch. Then, when the moment came, it wasn’t Celtic Park. It was Rugby Park and a day when we had the chance to win the league. It was like a fairytale.”

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