If you were not aware already, Celtic have some players heading to the 2023 AFC Asian Cup in January.
The Qatar tournament was originally scheduled to take place in the summer. But due to the extreme heat in the country during that period, it was moved back to the winter of 2023/24.
That gives Brendan Rodgers a bit of a headache because he’ll be forced to wave goodbye to a sizeable chunk of his first-team squad – and some may not even return back to Celtic until February.
So here is everything you need to know about which Celtic players are going, when they play, how to watch their games and when they could return to the club.
Celtic players at Asian Cup
Five Hoops stars will be jetting off to Qatar to represent their countries at the tournament. They consist of:
- Daizen Maeda (Japan)
- Reo Hatate (Japan)
- Oh Hyeon-gyu (South Korea)
- Yang Hyun-jun (South Korea)
- Marco Tilio (Australia)
Celtic players not at Asian Cup
Japanese pair Yuki Kobayashi and Tomoki Iwata have not been called up and therefore will stay with Celtic across the duration of the competition.
However, Kobayashi is being linked with a loan move to Yokohama F. Marinos so may yet be leaving the Hoops squad this month anyway.
Celtic games Asian Cup stars could miss
The tournament kicks off on January 12 and the final will take place on February 10, meaning there is potential for plenty of Celtic games to be missed by the club’s Asian Cup stars.
Celtic issued a statement confirming Maeda, Hatate, Oh, Yang and Tilio have all departed Lennoxtown for Qatar and these are the games they will/could miss throughout the Asian Cup:
- Celtic vs Buckie Thistle (January 21)
- Celtic vs Ross County (January 27)
- Aberdeen vs Celtic (February 3)
- Hibs vs Celtic (February 7)
All five players will miss the Scottish Cup clash against Buckie and the Scottish Premiership meeting with the Staggies. It all depends on how well Japan, South Korea and Australia do with regards to the other two Celtic matches.
Celtic players’ key dates & times
If you are keen on watching the club’s players take part in the group stage and potentially the knockout rounds, check out the relevant fixtures below.
Here are Australia (Group B), Japan (Group D) and South Korea’s (Group E) Asian Cup group stage games. All times are United Kingdom:
Marco Tilio
- Australia vs India (January 13, 11:30am)
- Syria vs Australia (January 18, 11:30am)
- Australia vs Uzbekistan (January 23, 11:30am)
Daizen Maeda & Reo Hatate
- Japan vs Vietnam (January 14, 11:30am)
- Iraq vs Japan (January 19, 11:30am)
- Japan vs Indonesia (January 24, 11:30am)
Oh Hyeon-gyu & Yang Hyun-jun
- South Korea vs Bahrain (January 15, 11:30am)
- Jordan vs South Korea (January 20, 11:30am)
- South Korea vs Malaysia (January 25, 11:30am)
Knockout stage & final
- Round of 16 (January 28-30)
- Quarter-finals (February 2-3)
- Semi-finals (February 6-7)
- Final (February 10)
How to watch Celtic stars at Asian Cup
For Celtic fans living in the United Kingdom, the official way to watch the 2023 AFC Asian Cup is through the TrillerTV+ channel.
All you have to do is sign up for a monthly subscription at a cost of £7.99 to watch the games. The tournament’s official YouTube channel in the past has streamed games live for free so keep an eye out on there too.
Here are some other selected official broadcasters depending on which country you live in:
- Paramount +, CBS Sports (United States)
- Paramount +, Network 10 (Australia)
- DAZN, TV Asahi (Japan)
- CJ ENM, Coupang (South Korea)
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