johnreid 
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There was reasonably good news on the injury front for Celtic recently when it comes to the fitness of star striker Kyogo.
Manager Ange Postecoglou confirmed that the player’s hamstring injury wasn’t as bad as first feared, and that he should be involved in the game against Rangers on the 2nd of January.
Before the Glasgow derby Celtic play in a number of key games, but arguably the most important is the upcoming Premier Sports Cup Final against Hibernian at Hampden Park. It is a big game for Celtic for a number of reasons, perhaps most importantly it is a chance for Postecoglou to win his first trophy as Hoops manager.
That would be a real boost for all at the club going into the second-half of the season.
With the forward injuries that Celtic currently have, the Hoops boss would no doubt love to have a Kyogo in the squad for Hampden. However, it is not a risk that he should take, and the striker should be left out until he is fully fit.
The last thing that Celtic and Postecoglou will want to happen is that the player returns too early and suffers another injury. Arguably that is what happened to James Forrest in the recent win over Motherwell.
He was substituted in his return from injury with what looked liked a recurrence of a hamstring problem. That injury could leave Forrest out for a number of weeks, which would be a real pity for the player and the club.
You have to think that Postecoglou and Celtic will err on the side of caution when it comes to Kyogo, even though the player must be desperate to play in the cup final.
Even though Celtic don’t have any fit strikers at the time of writing, the Hoops did still manage to create a lot of chances in the aforementioned match against Motherwell, which really should have resulted in a much more convincing win rather than 1-0.
If Kyogo had been fit the victory may have been by a greater margin, but every club has to deal with injuries and unfortunately Celtic have a lot of them in one section of the squad.
The likes of David Turnbull, Liel Abada and Tom Rogic might not be as good at finishing as Kyogo, but they can still create a lot of chances for the Hoops, and hopefully find the back of the net like Rogic did against Motherwell.
Celtic must keep Kyogo out of action until he is 100% fit, and if that means he misses the cup final so be it, it opens up the possibility of another Hoops player becoming the Hampden Park hero.
