John Kennedy’s Celtic story – From career-ending injury to coaching glory | OneFootball

John Kennedy opens up on career-ending injury and road to Celtic assistant manager…

Brendan Rodgers and assistant John Kennedy attend a team training session at the Celtic Training Centre in Lennoxtown. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)

John Kennedy has opened up on his career-ending injury and how that ultimately led him on the road to being Celtic’s assistant manager for many years. The big defender was a promising centre-back at the turn of the millennium and really began to show promise when Martin O’Neill introduced him to the Hoops starting line-up.

John Kennedy starred in the Nou Camp for Celtic in 2004

He was a hugely talented player and showed his class in a UEFA Cup tie against Barcelona in the Nou Camp back in 2004, when Celtic drew 0-0 to put us into the quarter-finals, thanks to a superb Alan Thompson volley in the first-leg at Parkhead, where we triumphed 1-0. That night in Catalonia, Kennedy put in an inspired performance alongside teammate David Marshall, who played the game of a lifetime to thwart Ronaldinho and Co.

John Kennedy and Brendan Rodgers at Tannadice, Dundee Utd v Celtic, Sunday 22 December 2024. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

John Kennedy suffered a life-changing injury playing in a friendly match for Scotland

Not long after that though, the assistant manager suffered a life-changing injury during international duty with Scotland. That challenge which was sustained against Romania in a friendly match would go on to have an incomprehensible affect on John’s life, as he would would never be the same again as a footballer. Recalling that dark period in his life recently with Podium Analytics, he revealed: “There was a moment the day after my injury that I’ll never forget. I arrived at Celtic Park to be assessed by our club doctor, Roddy Macdonald. At this point, nobody at Celtic knew much.

John Kennedy and Stephen McManus sign for Celtic as 14 and 15 years olds in February 1998. John Kennedy became the youngest ever Celt when Kenny Dalglish gave him his debut in April 2000 against Motherwell in a 4-0 win at Celtic Park

“They’d just seen the TV footage, knew there’d been an injury and that there could be damage to the knee. Roddy unstrapped the splint. That was my first real look at the knee. It was absolutely huge. I just remember Roddy picking my leg up and just slowly laying it back down again.

“This injury you don’t really get in football. This is like a car crash.”

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“Years later, he told me: ‘The day I picked your leg up, everything was just moving around. There was nothing holding it together.’ I went to the hospital for the scans. I remember my foot touching the floor and my leg sinking to the outside, like it was just wanting to fall apart. One of the doctors looked at it and said: ‘This injury you don’t really get in football. This is like a car crash.’ That was when the penny dropped. I remember thinking: ‘This could be the end.’

15.07.2007 Photo imago/Colorsport John Kennedy (Celtic Glasgow) Scottish Premier League 2007/2008

I said: ‘Mum, I’m not sure I’ll ever play football again.’

The gutted Celtic star broke down telling his mum at the time, but then recalled gritting his teeth and being determined to remain strong. “I went home to my family,” he said. “Mum asked me how it was going and that was the first time I broke down. I said: ‘Mum, I’m not sure I’ll ever play football again.’

Then, seeing my mum get so emotional, I thought: ‘I need to steady the ship here.’ So, I said: ‘No, no, I’ll be fine. We’re going to go to America and see what happens.’ And it unfolded from there. I was out for over three years and throughout that time, the one thing that kept me going was the thought of walking back out the tunnel at Celtic Park.

That was the moment I envisioned. The moment when I would say to myself: ‘I’m happy again.’”

John Kennedy speaking to the media including The Celtic Star

“It was Rugby Park and a day when we had the chance to win the league. It was like a fairytale.”

The next occasion he would feature competitively would be when Gordon Strachan’s side conquered Kilmarnock at Rugby Park, with a last-gasp Shunsuke Nakamura free-kick sealing the deal for the Hoops.

Refreshing his memories of that day, he said: “I’d get changed and go upstairs to the gym, which overlooked the walkways and car parks around Celtic Park. I’d put music on, and I’d just run. Through the blinds, you could see the supporters all piling into the stadium. Every step on that treadmill was getting me closer to my goal of walking out of that tunnel and getting back on that pitch. Then, when the moment came, it wasn’t Celtic Park. It was Rugby Park and a day when we had the chance to win the league. It was like a fairytale.”

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John Kennedy. Photo by Stuart Wallace

He continued: “As the game panned out, we went 1-0 up and then Kilmarnock made it 1-1. Then, in the last minute, a Naka free-kick … then the celebrations started!

“My emotions were for everyone who had been on that journey with me.”

“It was such a fitting game to make my comeback in, after so long out injured. I felt it as much for my family as for me. Over the years, I was able to focus on the rehab, put in all the work to get myself back. I was in control, to a degree. But your family are just looking on, hoping, fingers crossed, saying prayers. So, that day at Rugby Park, when we won the title with the last kick of the game, was great for me, but my emotions were for everyone who had been on that journey with me.”

John Kennedy would never be able to recover properly from that shocking injury and decided to finally hang up his boots in 2009, after some deep thinking.

“As much as it’s a team sport, everything revolves around progressing to the next point in your own career.”

His journey from injury hell to Celtic assistant manager though, has been one which has helped him develop immensely as a person and coach. “Before the injury, I’d gone through a period of years where it was very much about me,” he admitted. “How am I going to make it into the Celtic first team? How am I going to establish myself in the Scotland team? How do I better myself? As much as it’s a team sport, everything revolves around progressing to the next point in your own career.

Neil Lennon and John Kennedy Photo: Jeff Holmes

“Through the injury and rehab, the blinkers started to come off.”

“Through the injury and rehab, the blinkers started to come off. I started to understand how the whole club operated – through watching training and going to the games, I began to appreciate all the parts that must come together to make something work.

“Instead of just watching a game back and analysing my own performance, I would watch what the whole team were doing. I would listen to Gordon Strachan, the Celtic manager at the time, give the team instructions and then watch it unfold from my seat in stand – or not unfold, and then watch Gordon correct things at half-time.”

05.07.2007. Photo imago/Geisser Aldeson Cabral (Basel) John Kennedy (Celtic Glasgow) IMAGO

“It all changed for me in that period.”

He said: “At half-time, I’d actually slip inside the dressing room just to be able to hear what was going on, then I’d go back to my seat in the stand for the second half. I picked up so much about preparation, game-planning, execution, then the review process. It all changed for me in that period.

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“As much as I didn’t have a long career when I came back from injury, it prepared me for where I am now. So, when I stopped playing, I felt equipped to quickly move into something else, which was the other side of football – firstly analysis and recruitment, then coaching. My own experience with injury now helps me relate to injured players. Everyone’s different and I think it’s about getting to know the person.”

John Kennedy and Brendan Rodgers at the Premier Sports Cup semi-final, Celtic against Aberdeen. Photo AJ for The Celtic Star

With his current manager Brendan Rodgers, whom he has worked with before, he highlighted the personal touch he brings to the role, with it being as much pastoral as anything else.

“Brendan’s very much a people person”

“With Brendan Rodgers and all the staff at Celtic, there’s a lot of interaction. Brendan’s very much a people person,” Kennedy explained. “He wants to manage and make decisions, but he wants to get to know people. Every day he’s got players coming in and out of his office. He’ll sit them down and it isn’t always a conversation about the game or the performance. It could be – how are you feeling, how are you settling, how’s your family?”

Ronny Deila Celtic manager with coach John Kennedy (right) during the Pre Season Friendly between Celtic and De Bosch at St Mirren Park on July 01, 2015. (Photo by Jeff Holmes/Getty Images)

He added: “That’s his way of connecting with players and getting the best out of them. Of course, we are pushing players and developing them, but it’s also our job to make them feel comfortable. And so that culture and environment feeds into how you handle them when they are injured.”

Paul Gillespie

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