Mikey Johnston in brutally honest Celtic future verdict as forgotten winger concedes 'ultimately it's up to me'

Mikey Johnston knows the clock is ticking but he is not ready to let go of his dream of cracking it at Celtic.

The Hoops winger’s early potential was halted buy a series of injury woes and he spent last season away from the club on loan in Portugal. Boss Brendan Rodgers was a bit part of his explosion into he side during his first spell in charge and he brought the 24-year-old in from the cold against Hibs last month.

Johnston has been put back on ice in recent weeks and there was a chilling warning from the manager about the need for fringe men to step up as there could be several players heading out the door in January. The attacker – who is with the Ireland squad ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Holland – has taken on board the advice and have vowed to bust a gut to safeguard his Celtic status – and achieve his ambition of appearing in the Champions League. He said. “It’s not happened yet. Hopefully it does. A big dream of mine would have been to play in the Champions League for Celtic.

“It’s sort of what I wanted to do as a boy so hopefully it happens but if it doesn’t it’s not the end of the world. No player is going to be happy when they're not playing. Ultimately it's up to me and I need to try and force my way into that team. I have until January to do that and I will try and give it everything to do that but we just have to see what happens.

“I’ve not spoken to the manager much in the last sort of month, we've had chats here and there. It's tough decisions for the manager to make and ultimately it's up to me.”

Johnston relishes international duty but he knows his chances of being involved with Ireland get hit by his lack of game time with Celtic. The first aim feeds the second – and that’s given him added