Daizen Maeda’s importance to Celtic cannot be denied by anyone connected to the club.
The Japanese winger has been crucial to Celtic’s successes since he joined the club back in December 2021.
Daizen Maeda‘s electric pace is matched only by his work rate as the Celtic attacker often does the job of two players as he wows the fans with his attacking intent and his incredible engine in pressing and harrying the opposition in defence.
However, Maeda is currently sidelined after picking up an injury in the 4-1 Chelsea win on the US Tour.
After successfully negotiating the opening SPFL fixture against Kilmarnock without the Celtic winger, Hoops boss, Brendan Rodgers, has delivered an injury update on Maeda and when he expects him to return to the first team.
Rodgers hopeful to see Maeda ‘on the pitch’
Rodgers gave James Forrest the nod to step in for Maeda against Kilmarnock and the Celtic veteran did a fine job.
The Japan international is usually the first name on Rodgers’ team sheet and the Celtic boss shared when Maeda is likely to be back on it.
Rodgers said [Sky Sports], “Hopefully not too long. We saw the clash of knees that he had in the Chelsea game, we thought initially it was going to be worse.
“But hopefully he will be on the pitch next week and we’ll assess it from there. It’s just going to be week to week, really.”
So it seems that whilst Maeda’s return is not going to take as long as first feared, it seems that Rodgers is taking a kid’s glove approach at reintroducing him fully to first-team action.
With the Champions League group stages starting in September, Rodgers knows that having Maeda fit and available will boost his hopes of getting Celtic out of the group stages.
With Hibs up next Sunday, Maeda is unlikely to feature in the away fixture in the capital but looking at how James Forrest performed against Kilmarnock, Rodgers knows he has a player more than capable of stepping in for Japan international.
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