Ange Postecoglou shares Reo Hatate hope after concerning Celtic injury

By John McGinley

March 18, 2023

Ange Postecoglou is hopeful that the break from club action will give Reo Hatate the time to recover from a ‘twinge’ he felt during today’s Celtic win over Hibernian.

Hatate had to exit the match in the 12th minute, seemingly going down with some sort of muscle injury. He looked in discomfort, limped off the pitch and headed straight up the tunnel, to be replaced by David Turnbull.

Postecoglou doesn’t have a confirmed prognosis on recovery but is hoping it’s not anything too serious and that the international break will allow proper recovery.

The Celtic boss said [Daily Record]: “I’m not really sure about Reo, I haven’t spoken to the medical team but I am hoping it’s nothing too serious. He just felt a twinge so having a couple of weeks without games hopefully helps in terms of his recovery.

“We have been on a pretty good run. We kind of want to keep going. But ultimately we factored this break into our planning. The stretch between the World Cup and now we knew would be important. We knew we would have a lot of good weeks of training in there without any games and we used that really well. Now it is about using these two weeks to get ready for the run in.”

Hatate didn’t seem to be in massive amounts of pain, unless he hides it well. So you wouldn’t think it’s anything as drastic as a hamstring tear or anything that would rule him out for an extended period.

Celtic don’t play again until April 2nd, so there is a window for recovery without thinking about taking part in training or preparing for matches. After that, it’s a big derby against Rangers, which Postecoglou will really be hoping he is available for.

The Japanese midfielder is a difference maker in those high-stakes encounters and he’d be one of the players that fans would be looking to for a big performance against the Ibrox outfit.

Keep all your fingers crossed for a swift recovery!

In other news, Ange Postecoglou reacts to huge Hyeongyu Oh moment at Celtic Park.