One of the more perplexing bits of footage that emerged from last night’s Celtic win over Hearts was an incident during which John Souttar approached Kyogo Furuhashi, with the Japanese forward going to the ground.
In fact, it’s one of the bits of media that has particularly wound Rangers fans up today, with one prominent supporter and author calling Kyogo “arguably the worst cheat in Scottish football” he’s ever seen.
Now it appears online Celtic supporters have gotten to the bottom of the mystery with an image that shows bruising or reddening on Kyogo’s abdomen, after the tussle with Souttar. You can see the image via Twitter user @Kieran_Celtic.
It appears that far from going down too easily, Kyogo was grabbed in the stomach by the Hearts man, at least to an strong enough extent to cause the marks.
There’s a chance he has gone down a bit easily but it seems there is definite contact and it’s not quite Kyogo being a “cheat” is it, or enough to send rival supporters into meltdown.
In fact, if it had happened to one of their players such as Alfredo Morelos there would be absolute uproar.
This is odd and bizarre behavour from Souttar and if caught by the referee might have actually warranted some action. Kyogo did try to shine light on the incident aftewards, but Bobby Madden had little to say or do.
It’s quite reminiscent of a previous Kyogo incident against Aberdeen recently. Dons defender David Bates appeared to whack Kyogo in the face, with the player going down, before a large outcry online about the Japanese forward.
Perhaps rather than demonising Kyogo, opposition players should stop striking or grabbing the player, then we wouldn’t have any of issues moving forward.
A curious narrative this season, to say the least.
In other news, Carl Starfelt is now finally getting the recognition his Celtic start deserves.
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