Alistair Johnston has opened up on the internal USA-Canada rivalry at Celtic.
The right-back, who regularly represents Canada on the international scene, could come up against his club teammate Cameron Carter-Vickers of the USA tonight.
Celtic's Auston Trusty would likely have featured in the hotly anticipated clash, too, had it not been for an injury which kept him out of his side's loss to Rangers last weekend.
Although Canada and USA have a fierce rivalry on the pitch (and, at times, off it), Johnston says he and his American teammates get on swimmingly back at Celtic: "We always have a good coming together with that sort of stuff back at the club," he told One Soccer.
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"It's something that's always brought up by the coaching staff as well, and again, they're also centre-backs, which is hilarious too, so we all play in the backline together."
While Carter-Vickers may not be a regular first-choice pick for the USA, he was called up for this international break and travelled across the Atlantic with Johnston: "Me and CCV [Cameron Carter-Vickers], we get along really well," said the Canadian.
"We sat beside each other on the flight over, playing chess the whole way. He's my best mate on the team.
"There's obviously some extra needle, and there's obviously going to be bragging rights going back to the club. We're on the same flight back to Glasgow, so I'd like to have one up on him going into that."
As the nations lock horns this evening, there will likely be some added needle, given the off-field situation, in the eyes of Johnston.
He said: "It's a big match; we all know the rivalry what it is, and we also all know what the geo-political situation is right now between our two countries.
"He [Carter-Vickers] stays out of it more being a British-American."
