West Brom loanee can become key player

The winger caught the eye on an exciting cameo from the bench in the home victory over Birmingham last time out and was key in creating fellow recruit Andi Weimann’s late goal. Johnston’s versatility has been identified as a key strength by Corberan.

“I am very pleased to have Johnston here, because he is not only a winger, he is a mix of a winger and playmaker who can adapt and play to the left, the right, the pockets, on the sides,” the head coach said of his No.1 winger target.

“And the more he can train, because he has only had one day in training (prior to his debut), the more option he will have to help the team.”

Corberan added: “Johnston was involved in the goal, Callum Marshall was involved in the goal, Furlong was involved in the goal and Andi Weimann was involved in the goal.

“Three of the new players were involved in the goal because they were the attacking players in that moment.

“It doesn’t mean the others could not have been involved but these players have the responsibility in that moment in the game.”

Glasgow-born Johnston is a Celtic academy graduate and joined the club as a schoolboy before breaking into the first-team fold around 2017 as a teen.

Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers, who gave him a senior debut, has described Johnston as a “big talent” with “charisma” and “a lovely arrogance” about his game. Former Celtic chief Ange Postecoglou said “there’s definitely a talented player there” when discussing a potential loan.

He has seen senior minutes limited in recent years. Medial ligament and muscle issues limited his chances at regular starts in recent seasons before an impressive loan in Portugal’s top flight last term with Vitoria Guimaraes brought 31 appearances. A back issue struck last summer and ruled Johnston out for a few months.

Corberan said: “He has played a lot (for Celtic) in December, he is a player we need to work normally, but this year we try to work with our resources to avoid injuries for players.

“One of the things I’m happy with, hopefully it keeps like this, is we didn’t have any injuries in any training, injuries were all from games, which can arrive. You have muscle or contact injuries, we have had more contact injuries, but the muscle ones have been long-term like the (Matt) Phillips one.

“We want to always avoid, we have done a good body evaluation, like every new player, and every new season, to try to focus on the body and balances to help us avoid, but in football even if you do (everything) unfortunately it is impossible to avoid injuries.”