NafisaCeltic have been dealt another injury setback for Ibrox on Sunday after Brendan Rodgers confirmed that Alistair Johnston has been sidelined.
The Canadian international will miss Sunday’s final Glasgow derby of the Scottish Premiership season against Rangers due to a hip ailment.
The right-back will receive a pain-relieving injection to ensure his availability for the Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen at Hampden Park on Saturday, May 24th.
Rodgers is not short of challenges, as it was revealed that Portuguese winger Jota will be absent for six to nine months after sustaining a knee injury at Tannadice when Celtic secured the Scottish Premiership title in commanding fashion against Dundee United with a 5-0 victory last weekend.
The Irishman disclosed that his first-team roster is nursing several injuries ahead of the trip to Govan. Jota, Johnston, Daizen Maeda, and Nicolas Kuhn all skipped Friday’s training session at Lennoxtown.
The Japanese forward, who has scored 32 goals this season, will be deemed fit for Ibrox.
However, German winger Kuhn’s knee is still under evaluation, and a last-minute call will be made on his status, but Rodgers is optimistic he will be cleared to join the squad to face the Light Blues.
Elsewhere, South Korean winger Yang Hyun-Jun has resumed first-team training, and he is considered a borderline case for the Rangers match, but 21-year-old defender Dane Murray will miss the rest of the season due to a persistent knee issue.
Rodgers said: “We’ve got a few knocks, so obviously Jota will be out and sadly for us and for him he’ll be out for a period of time, probably six to nine months.
“It was the cruciate and it was worse than we’d hoped, really, so he starts on his journey of recovery from that now, but somewhere between six and nine months.
“Alistair Johnson won’t be available. Ali’s been needing an injection into his hip for a period of time to ensure he was ready for the cup final, and in our preparation, we decided that we would do that after the Dundee United game.
“So I picked him out of the game at the weekend, and most probably the St Mirren game and that gives him a few weeks to be ready for the cup final.
“Dane Murray has had an issue with his knee, and he’ll be out for the rest of the season and then be ready for pre-season.
“We’ve also got Yang-Hyun Jun back. Yang is back training with the squad, so we’ll give him one more day tomorrow and then we’ll see if he’s going to be available for the squad.
“Daizen should be fine, and Nicolas was out. We’re just assessing him and a slight issue with his knee, but he should be okay. We had the scan on that, it’s just a little bit of bruising, but he should be okay.”
Nafisa
