Mikey Johnston has impressed since making his Ireland debut earlier this year, but he has struggled for game time at club level in recent months.
When Johnston made his first Ireland appearance in March's friendly against Latvia, he was impressing in the Portuguese Liga NOS while on loan at Vitória de Guimarães from Celtic.
Johnston has found game time hard to come by since returning to Celtic this summer - in fact, the Ireland winger has not made a single appearance for the Hoops this season.
The 24-year-old struggled with a back injury over the summer, and missed out on the squad for Ireland's qualifiers against France and the Netherlands last month due to the lengthy layoff.
However, he has now returned to action at international level, and Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers has offered encouragement to the Irishman on his prospects of returning to action for the Scottish champions.
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Mikey Johnston offered encouragement by Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers
Aside from appearing on the bench for both of Celtic's first two Champions League games, Mikey Johnston has not figured in Brendan Rodgers' plans this season.
16 October 2023; Mikey Johnston of Republic of Ireland celebrates with teammates Liam Scales, left, after scoring their side's second goal during the UEFA EURO 2024 Championship qualifying group B match between Gibraltar and Republic of Ireland at Estádio Algarve in Faro, Portugal. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
However, after the Glasgow-born Ireland international returned to action with a goal against Gibraltar during the last round of EURO 2024 qualifiers, Rodgers said that he hoped to see Johnston fight for a place in the Celtic side.
Rodgers said that a loan move had been considered for Johnston during the summer, but that the winger's injury issues had curbed such a move. The Northern Irishman said that Johnston's fitness would be crucial to his prospects of game time:
For me, the biggest thing with Mikey was just about being fit. At the end of the window there was maybe a scramble about thinking of going out on loan but he was coming off a really nasty back problem where he hadn't trained.
Between the end of the window and January, he had to prove that he could stay fit and stay robust and build up his football fitness, then we will see if we can get him some game time because he is a talented player.
Thankfully he has been able to do that. He has gone away with the international team and got some minutes, which is great, and we will see between now and January if he gets that game time - but he gets the chance to prove it every day in training. He looks strong, and I am hopeful he might get some game time.
Given the fact that Mikey Johnston has been one of the more impressive and consistent attacking performers in recent times for Ireland, fans will hope that he gets more game time at club level to aid his development.
His Celtic teammate Liam Scales made his debut for Ireland in the acrimonious defeat to Greece last week, after some hugely impressive performances thus far this season for his club.
Irish fans will hope to see Scales and Johnston in action when Celtic travel to Hearts for 2:15pm kick-off on Sunday.
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