Johnston 'ahead' in injury recovery

Alistair Johnston feels "ahead" in his recovery from a hamstring tear and sees the enforced lay-off as an opportunity to "reset" after playing 115 Celtic games since the start of 2023.

The Canada right-back was expected to be out for 12 weeks after suffering the injury in the goalless first leg of Celtic's Champions League play-off loss to Kairat Almaty last month.

"When the original injury happened, I kind of feared the worst," he told the Park The Bus podcast.

"It's a pretty significant injury, still. I'm actually ahead of where I thought I was going to be, but still a long way to go. I'm not really going to put a timeline on it just yet.

"I feel really good. I feel like I'm almost ready to go out there and play, but obviously I know there's still a lot of boxes that need to get checked before I get back to my full level.

"I'm hoping to be back here in the nearer future than probably expected."

Johnston, 26, feels "lucky" the injury was not more serious, given his country is co-hosting next year's World Cup.

"I don't think any name is really written in pen," Johnston said.

"We've continued to develop. It's really exciting. I want to be competing. You have to come in, you have to be fully committed to every single training session, not just every match with the national team, to really keep your spot."

Johnston's international team-mate Derek Cornelius made his Rangers debut in Saturday's defeat by Hearts.

The defender scored the winner in Canada's win over Wales last week and, in a light-hearted tone, Johnston was asked if he wanted to see Cornelius do well in Glasgow.

"I love DC but there's not a single bone in my body that could ever pull for them," he wryly replied.