The sight of Kyogo Furuhashi back in first-team training has been met with plenty of excitement from the Celtic supporters.
Indeed, the Hoops provided a routine training tweet ahead of tonight’s game against Raith Rovers in the League Cup. But eagle-eyed supporters noticed something in the background of one of them.
Kyogo was snapped back doing some light training as he appeared to spend time away from the main group. This comes after a knee injury picked up with Japan during the latest international break.
His departure couldn’t have come at a worse time. He started his Celtic career on fire with seven goals in nine games [Transfermarkt]. His injury meant that he missed and will continue to miss massive games both domestically and in Europe.
Celtic have felt the effect of Kyogo’s absence badly too. None more so than on Sunday against Livingston during our toothless 1-0 defeat in West Lothian.
Kyogo Furuhasi back in Celtic training, but no return date set yet
It’s important we put this into some context. Furuhashi won’t be back for tonight’s game against Raith Rovers just because he’s been pictured doing individual training.
He’s still to make his return to full training going by the image posted yesterday. That likely means that he’ll be out for another two weeks. At the time of his injury, Ange Postecoglou stated that he expects Kyogo to be out for a month [BBC].
There’s no reason to expect that timeframe has changed. So it would be naive to expect him to be in the squad for the games against the likes of Raith, Dundee United, and Leverkusen respectively.
Fingers crossed he continues his return to full fitness in a smooth manner. We really can’t afford to be missing him for a plethora of games.
And supporters certainly see his value too as they hailed his light training return:
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