Entertainers is having a ball at the eight Hawthorns

MIKEY Johnston is the best player in the Championship on current form, at least if his West Brom team-mate Jed Wallace is to be believed.

- Chris Dunlavy

“Mikey’s on fire at the moment,” said the former Millwall man. “The way he’s playing, I don’t see anybody better.”

Six goals, one assist and several man-of-the-match performances bolster Wallace’s assessment, and beg an obvious question: why did Celtic permit such an extravagantly talented winger to join the Baggies on loan in January?

It’s a question that Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers has fielded several times in recent weeks, and the answer is relatively simple.

Johnston’s seven years in the Celtic first team have been devastated by injury. Some big. Some small. All disruptive.

“You have to really understand football to understand what he’s been through because they’re not your average injuries,” explained former England goalkeeper Joe Hart, a teammate at Celtic Park.

“People understand when you pull your hamstring and you’re out for eight weeks but you come back and you’re fine. Or if you break a leg. But Mikey had these little injuries that kept holding him back and stopped any sort of momentum and flow in his career.”

Johnston actually made his debut for Celtic way back in May 2017 but has since started just 20 league games for his boyhood club. Supporters have all but written him off.