SAD UPDATE — He Won’t Feature for Celtic Again This Season After Martin O’Neill Confirms Setback

It’s not dramatic or sudden. Instead, it drifts in quietly through uncertainty, subtle hints, and updates supporters desperately hope will amount to nothing. Unfortunately for Celtic this season, those moments have become all too familiar.

Just as things appear to be stabilizing, just as there’s a sense the team might finally build some rhythm, something shifts. Momentum is disrupted. Progress stalls.

Now, at a crucial point in the campaign, that uneasy feeling has returned once again.

With only a handful of matches remaining, the pressure couldn’t be greater. Every point matters. Every mistake carries weight. The title race remains finely poised, and there’s no margin left for error.

Celtic find themselves in pursuit. The gap at the summit threatens to widen before they even step onto the pitch, with both Hearts and Rangers firmly in the mix. The tension around Martin O’Neill’s squad is growing by the week.

This is the defining stage of the season where campaigns are either revived or allowed to slip away.

But instead of full focus on the action ahead, attention has been diverted.

Behind the scenes, circumstances have changed.

In recent weeks, there had been cautious optimism. Signs pointed toward the return of a key player. Training updates suggested progress. There was a growing belief that Celtic might receive a timely boost when they needed it most.

That optimism, however, has now given way to disappointment.

Something more definitive. More concerning.

Martin O’Neill has confirmed a fresh setback—one that forces a rethink of earlier expectations. While every detail is still being assessed, one thing is becoming increasingly clear:

This is no longer a short-term delay.

It could mean an absence stretching through the remainder of the season.

“Alistair Johnston has had a wee bit of a setback. He went away with the Canadian national side, was doing some running and had a bit of a setback on his final day of training, which was really disconcerting for us.

In the wider scheme of things, for the length of time he’s been out, hopefully it’s not too bad.”

The tone of the update is cautious, but the implications are hard to ignore.

Timing, more than anything, is working against Celtic.

“It has delayed things a little bit here. We were hoping to have him, I’m not saying for this weekend, but we were hoping to have him in a couple of weeks, maybe having played some bounce games.

That will just have to be parked and put to the side for the moment. It’s a shame.”

There had been hope he might return within weeks—perhaps easing back through behind-closed-doors matches. That plan, for now, has been shelved.

And with each passing fixture, the window for a comeback narrows.

What once looked like a late-season boost is now at risk of becoming a complete absence.

For Celtic, it’s another setback in a campaign that has already tested their depth and resilience.

Another key piece unavailable when it matters most.

The title race isn’t over. There is still a path forward.

But it’s becoming increasingly difficult.

And as the final stretch approaches, Celtic must press on—knowing that one player who could have made a real impact may not return to the pitch before the season ends.