Colby Donovan gets HUGE new Celtic contract! | + Injury updates on Johnston, Yang and Van den berg!

Right, let's talk about actual Celtic and let's start off with what feels like rare positive news nowadays.

So yesterday evening Celtic announced out of nowhere that Colby Donovan had signed a contract extension with Celtic and that came after a few weeks if not months for some of speculation around his contractual situation in the future.

You cast your mind back to last season, there was rumours his contract was meant to be up in the summer and I don't think there was a whole lot of clarity with his situation and after what has been an impressive few weeks for Colby and showing definite improvement from even the start of the season, Celtic have announced he has a new deal.

Let's have a look at that very quickly, the statement came out around quarter to six last night so as everything was all said and done here in the Rye118 channel anyway.

Celtic put out this that they are delighted to announce a new long-term deal for Colby Donovan which will see him remain at the club until the summer of 2031.

The defender who turned 20 last month, a graduate of the youth academy of course, having progressed all the way through to a first player is signing that deal they talk a little bit about Colby's career where he is right now this season he's made 17 appearances and 15 of those being starts of course in the absence of Alistair Johnson and his performances saw him rewarded with a call-up to the Scottish national team during the most recent run of fixtures Martin O'Neill spoke about that saying extending his contract is fantastic news for us although he's very young he's shown such maturity strength and resilience in fact he has been exceptional for us he's come in when we needed him giving him everything for our cause and showing what a player he is he's a young man with a tremendous attitude and with recent international call-up as well.

He's had a phenomenal few months.

I know the love that Colby has for the club and I know what signing this deal means to him and his family.

I'm sure he will continue to progress and enjoy a very big future in the game.

I'm so pleased he sees a long-term future with Celtic.

So that was Martin O'Neill's comments in regards to Colby himself.

He said he was over the moon coming through Celtic to now being a first-team player.

it has been a roller coaster, I've loved every single minute but it doesn't stop now, I'm going to keep kicking on.

You've got to have that belief as a young player coming through at Celtic, you see all the signings that they bring in and it's a top club and you expect to win every single week, so as a young player it is tough but you need to believe and I know that for certain when I was a kid I knew I could come through and do it.

All the academy boys that have come through have been brilliant.

You see Callum, James, KT and Raldo.

They've all been great servants of this club.

I love taking bits out of their game.

I was a young boy and I used to watch them growing up and now I'm playing alongside them and I'm good mates with them.

It's a dream come true.

So that was Colby Donovan's comments in short.

You can go and watch the full interview today on Celtic's YouTube channel.

I believe there was maybe some press conference quotes as well from the manager and I like that kind of just reinforces a lot of what's already been said, but big news, a contract extension, a five-year contract extension that keeps him till the summer of 2031.

I mean if he keeps going the way he's going, we might not have him till 2031 anyway, but it's good business for Celtic to get done and just generally good news.

And I can hear these in the comments section, ah Ryan, you said he was hopeless, you said he was this and that, you said at the start of the season that there wasn't much between him and Anthony Ralston.