It was a bit of a surprise to hear that Daizen Maeda has withdrawn from the Japan international squad due to injury.
The Samurai Blue have a couple of friendly matches on home soil over the next week. First up are Alistair Johnston’s Canada on Friday before a clash against Tunisia next Tuesday.
Celtic pair Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate could feature in the matches but Maeda won’t after it was announced on Monday that he had pulled out with a knock.
“Due to injury” was all the official JFA website offered and it is a little bit of a puzzler given the attacker’s typically energetic display against Kilmarnock on Saturday.
Maeda certainly didn’t seem to be carrying a knock when he jogged off to be replaced by Hyunjun Yang in the 89th minute of the 3-1 win.
Minutes earlier, he had received the ball on the wide right from Johnston and driven past the Killie left-back. There was absolutely no evidence of any issue there.
Of course, he may only have felt something after being replaced, or perhaps it was something so minor that he was able to play in the match. Regardless of what the story is, it does seem like it is good news for us.
If Maeda’s injury was a severe one we would have seen something on the pitch. It’s likely just a little bit of a knock that it makes no sense to travel to the other side of the world.
Instead, he will likely stay in Scotland and get up to speed, hopefully missing no Celtic matches and being ready for Tynecastle in just under a fortnight.
In other news, every Celtic star still out injured and what we know about their return
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
