Latest FIFPRO study shows former Celtic hero was one of the hardest worked in his country

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There are plenty of examples of players at Celtic who have continually turned out week in, week out and never take a break from first-team football.

Callum McGregor is a perfect example of a player who plays almost every week for Celtic as the captain works tirelessly to continue to bring success to the team.

Over the last three seasons, McGregor has missed just 28 games for Celtic and Scotland with 14 of those down to injury.

Matt O’Riley and Joe Hart have been similar over the years. Prior to that, Scott Brown was another who rarely missed games for club and country during his time at Celtic.

But it’s neither of these players who have made FIFpro’s latest study into overworked players in football.

FIFPRO is a player’s union body that helps to look after their welfare and working environment in the game.

And in their latest study on work demands on players, one former Celtic hero was named as one of the hardest worked in his country by the age of 23.

Shunsuke Nakamura one of Japan’s most worked players

Looking at various national associations, FIFPRO highlighted former Celtic here, Shunsuke Nakamura, as a player who had the most first-team minutes for club and country in Japan by the time he was 23 years old.

At that age, Nakamura had made 154 career appearances for Yokohama F Marinos and Japan totalling 11,921 minutes.

And as you can see from the diagram, the workload on players has steadily increased as football has progressed.

Nakamura’s appearances and minutes were all racked up by 2001, a full year before he made his move to Italian side Reginna in 2002 and then, eventually, to Celtic in 2005.

This latest study is a comprehensive analysis of how players are now being overworked due to the high demands of domestic, European and international calendars and it shows that if something doesn’t change they could end up suffering from burnout.

Shunsuke Nakamura at Celtic

Thankfully that didn’t happen to Nakamura as his time at Celtic was incredible. In 151 appearances at the club, the Japanese star won three league titles, one Scottish Cup and two League Cups.

And who can forget his two wonderful free kicks against Manchester United in the Champions League as he helped guide Celtic into the last 16 of the competition for the first time in their history?

Now retired, Nakamura will always be remembered as a legend of the club for his four-year spell with goals against Rangers and the title-winning free-kick against Kilmarnock being amongst his highlights.