John Kennedy. Photo by Stuart Wallace
He continued: “As the game panned out, we went 1-0 up and then Kilmarnock made it 1-1. Then, in the last minute, a Naka free-kick … then the celebrations started!
“My emotions were for everyone who had been on that journey with me.”
“It was such a fitting game to make my comeback in, after so long out injured. I felt it as much for my family as for me. Over the years, I was able to focus on the rehab, put in all the work to get myself back. I was in control, to a degree. But your family are just looking on, hoping, fingers crossed, saying prayers. So, that day at Rugby Park, when we won the title with the last kick of the game, was great for me, but my emotions were for everyone who had been on that journey with me.”
John Kennedy would never be able to recover properly from that shocking injury and decided to finally hang up his boots in 2009, after some deep thinking.
“As much as it’s a team sport, everything revolves around progressing to the next point in your own career.”
His journey from injury hell to Celtic assistant manager though, has been one which has helped him develop immensely as a person and coach. “Before the injury, I’d gone through a period of years where it was very much about me,” he admitted. “How am I going to make it into the Celtic first team? How am I going to establish myself in the Scotland team? How do I better myself? As much as it’s a team sport, everything revolves around progressing to the next point in your own career.
Neil Lennon and John Kennedy Photo: Jeff Holmes
“Through the injury and rehab, the blinkers started to come off.”
“Through the injury and rehab, the blinkers started to come off. I started to understand how the whole club operated – through watching training and going to the games, I began to appreciate all the parts that must come together to make something work.
“Instead of just watching a game back and analysing my own performance, I would watch what the whole team were doing. I would listen to Gordon Strachan, the Celtic manager at the time, give the team instructions and then watch it unfold from my seat in stand – or not unfold, and then watch Gordon correct things at half-time.”
05.07.2007. Photo imago/Geisser Aldeson Cabral (Basel) John Kennedy (Celtic Glasgow) IMAGO
“It all changed for me in that period.”
He said: “At half-time, I’d actually slip inside the dressing room just to be able to hear what was going on, then I’d go back to my seat in the stand for the second half. I picked up so much about preparation, game-planning, execution, then the review process. It all changed for me in that period.
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