As Celtic supporters already know, Alistair Johnston is hardly shy when it comes to throwing himself into tackles.
Evidently, the Canada full-back applies the same attitude to international appearances.
Because despite being on the wrong end of a thrilling 4-0 international friendly defeat against the Netherlands last week, the 25-year-old and his Canadian peers threw everything they had at France a few days later.
By holding a blockbuster French side to a 0-0 stalemate at the Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, Canada held their own against the likes of Olivier Giroud, Ousmane Dembele, Antoine Griezmann and N'Golo Kante, to name just some of the stars who took to the pitch for Les Bleus.
Celtic full-back Johnston turned out for 63 minutes, and put in a typically energetic shift on the right – after which he took to Instagram to share his post-match thoughts.
The accompanying caption, "Battle testing" alongside the crossed swords emoji, has since captured the imagination of supportive Canada and Celtic fans alike – as can be seen in the replies to the post above.
In the wake of Celtic's double-winning success at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, Johnston praised manager Brendan Rodgers, while making some astute comparisons between the current Hoops manager and his predecessor Ange Postecoglou.
He said: "How [Brendan] handles the press, how he handles his players, it’s something I have never seen before. He’s so personable. He just truly gets it. I think he really understands what it means to be a Celtic manager and I have enjoyed every moment playing for him.
"I have been lucky in my time here. I’ve had Ange and obviously now Brendan and they’ve both been really special in their own ways. I think you saw it in the first season under Ange. It was a bit stop-start and then in the second year, all of a sudden, it was flying.
“I have a feeling that is kind of the plan for us as well. Obviously, when you get a new manager, there is a bit of a bedding-in period and it takes time. Obviously, injuries didn’t help and things along those lines. But I think we are pretty excited with our group with where we can take this.
"It is going to come down to a really strong pre-season going into, hopefully, a really strong Champions League campaign in a new format, so that’s exciting as well. Of course, you want to be pushing on all fronts, so we are excited for that.”
