Kyogo Furuhashi has once again been snubbed by the Japanese national team despite his heroics against Rangers at the weekend.
The striker bagged a stunning winner for Brendan Rodgers' side in the derby to extend Celtic's lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
Kyogo has not been a prominent figure in the Japanese set up in recent times though and that has continued ahead of their involvement in the Asia Cup.
Blue Samurai boss Hajime Moriyasu named his squad today and Kyogo has not been picked. This is of course a blow for Kyogo personally, but a boost for Celtic moving forward as they aim to dominate domestically in the second-half of the campaign.
Celtic duo Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate have been selected in the squad and could be missing for a month with the tournament due to start on January 14.
South Korean duo Oh and Yang could always be missing so Rodgers will be braced to ensure his side has cover for a key point in the season.
Rodgers had said: “It’s like the Africa Cup of Nations, it’s part of the deal. If you have a number of Asian players in your squad you know this might happen so it’s about dealing with it.
"It’s not a surprise. It is something you have to plan forward for and it was one of the first things we spoke about coming in here. It’s not all about the present, it’s about looking forward to each window. We have that in hand and we know what our ideas are for that."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel