Celtic player Hyeokkyu Kwon has shared a message after being away on international duty with the South Korea under-23 side.
The holding midfielder, who joined from Busan IPark in July, has endured a tough start to life at Celtic. Kwon is yet to make his competitive debut for the club and still seems to be recovering from a pretty torrid friendly experience against Athletic Club.
With competition in midfield fierce, he isn’t someone who is likely to be popping up on the minds of supporters. Yet, he has actually been away on international duty with the Korean youth side over the past week.
His side won both of their Asian Cup qualifiers during the break, beating Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar in successive outings. We’re not quite sure how long Kwon featured for in each of the matches. The truth is that information online is sketchy at best.
He does at least seem to have played some football, assuming that the photo he shared on his Instagram Stories was a recent one. (kwon_hk01 on Instagram)
Translated, the accompanying caption read: “Thank you for your support while I was in Korea.
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“So that I can return to the team and show my good side. I will try harder!”
The chances of Kwon “returning” to the Celtic team in the coming weeks seem pretty small.
He has made the matchday squad in four of our first five competitive games so far this season. But you feel like he may struggle with the likes of Reo Hatate, Paulo Bernardo and Nat Phillips coming into the reckoning for Dundee on Saturday.
Who knows what the long-term script is for the 22-year-old in Glasgow. It’s far too early to write him off as a failure — we haven’t even seen him kick a ball in anger yet.
However, with so many midfield options at our disposal, you really struggle to see where he’s going to find game time under Brendan Rodgers. Perhaps a loan move in January could already be the best option.
In other news, Irish outlet rave about Rocco Vata as Celtic man steals the show in midweek