The latest on Kyogo Furuhashi Celtic return

By John McGinley

September 24, 2021

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou doesn’t think we’ll see Kyogo Furuhashi back in action this side of the October international break.

The Bhoys have suffered from horrendous injury luck of late with a number of key players on the sidelines. That’s been compounded by the absence of other squad players such as Mikey Johnston and Karamoko Dembele.

Kyogo was injured on Japan duty during the last international break and Postecoglou doesn’t think he’ll return for Celtic until after the next one in October.

As quoted by The Daily Record, he said: “With Cal (Callum McGregor) next Thursday is being optimistic. With Kyogo, I doubt we will see him this side of the international window but he is pushing hard.

“Unfortunately, Mikey Johnston picked up a niggle on Wednesday so he will be out and I’m not sure when he will be back. To cut a long story short, we won’t get anybody back for Sunday.

“I haven’t been through too many periods in my career like this where it’s so challenging with what’s happening off the field in terms of injuries and disruptions. But it is what it is and what our supporters want to know is that we come here on Sunday and do everything to get a result and just get on with it.”

It all means the absolute earliest we’ll see the Japanese attacker in action is 16th October away to Motherwell, with matches at home to Ferencvaros and St Johnstone to follow.

Kyogo returning to this team will be huge for our form. We’ve witnessed enough over the last couple of months to be sure he will have a huge impact again.

His movement and game intelligence is beyond what we’ve got elsewhere in the squad and he can bring out the best of those around him, such as Liel Abada and Tom Rogic.

Still, it looks we’ll have to struggle on a bit for now without him, and others, in the team.

In other news, SPFL confirm brutal fixture change for Celtic supporters.