There’s no guarantee that Celtic forward Kyogo Furuhashi will return to action before the end of the season, journalist Pete O’Rourke says.
The lowdown
Furuhashi hasn’t played for The Hoops since Boxing Day, when he lasted only 15 minutes against St Johnstone before aggravating a hamstring injury.
Manager Ange Postecoglou said late last month that the Japanese attacker was ‘nowhere near’ resuming team training.
Celtic are in the midst of a closely-contested battle with Rangers for the Scottish Premiership crown. They currently lead the way on 73 points, but Rangers are just three points behind.
The latest
O’Rourke says the apparent uncertainty over the return to play timeline is deeply concerning.
He fears that Furuhashi’s injury could prove to be decisive in the title race.
“To be missing him, and not being sure when he might return, who knows, he might not even play again this season, is going to be a huge blow because you want your best players, especially this season when you are challenging for honours,” he told Give Me Sport.
“And to be missing Kyogo will be a big loss for Celtic.”
The verdict
He hasn’t played in 2022, and yet Furuhashi is still Celtic’s top scorer with 13 goals in all competitions.
For context, he’s played 22 games, while second-place man Liel Abada (11 goals) has now featured in 39.
Furuhashi has largely been used as a centre-forward this season, and so it’s falling to Giorgos Giakoumakis and Daizen Maeda to deputise.
The former recently bagged a hat-trick against Dundee FC but has only found the net in two of his other 13 league appearances, while Maeda holds a steady record of five goals in 12 appearances.
Thankfully for Celtic, wingers Abada and Jota have shown they can be a source of goals too.
In other news, Kevin Campbell reacts to the latest update on Cameron Carter-Vickers.