Johnny Kenny has revealed his knee injury is not as serious as first feared and confirmed he expects to be back for the beginning of Celtic’s pre-season.
The striker’s injury came at the worst possible moment after an excellent loan spell at Bolton Wanderers finally began gathering real momentum.
Kenny scored six goals after arriving in January and played a major role in pushing Bolton towards promotion contention before disaster struck late in the campaign.
The timing could hardly have been crueller.
After finally finding rhythm and confidence consistently in League One, the 22-year-old was forced to miss Bolton’s biggest game of the season at Wembley as they secured promotion to the Championship without him.
Initially, there were fears the injury could potentially require surgery and keep him sidelined long-term.
Thankfully for both Kenny and Celtic, that now appears not to be the case.
The striker has confirmed the issue is an LCL knee injury and expects to return in time for the opening week of pre-season training this summer.
That could prove particularly important given Celtic may soon have a new permanent manager in place ahead of Champions League qualifiers.
Speaking about the injury, Kenny said to RecordSport:
“It’s an LCL knee injury.
“It’s just a case of resting.
“I went to take a shot against Luton and the defender hit my knee.
“It just hit the contact on the inside but it damaged the ligament on the outside.
“I won’t need surgery.
“I’m going to get back for the first week of pre-season, so it’ll be another seven weeks probably.
“But it’s good I won’t miss pre-season, I’ll be back in and amongst it early July.”
With uncertainty surrounding several attacking positions at Celtic heading into the summer, pre-season could become a huge opportunity for Kenny.
Daizen Maeda’s future remains unclear, Kelechi Iheanacho’s contract situation is unresolved and further attacking departures are possible during what is expected to be another major rebuild.
