The excitement at Celtic’s return to action in the next week could be tempered by the fact that Kyogo, who has arguably been the Hoops’ most important player this season, could be called up for international duty in the new few weeks, and miss some vital games for the Bhoys.

If he is called up by Japan for the World Cup qualifiers, the striker, who cost the Hoops a reported £4.6m in the summer, could miss some vital games, especially the match against Rangers on the 2nd of February.

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Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou will probably be thinking that Kyogo will get called up for the games, and as a result the Hoops will have to play some big games without arguably the team’s most important player.

Should Kyogo be unavailable, the question has to be asked, are Celtic well placed to cope with the potential absentee of the player.

At the moment, it is hard to tell. The reason for that is due to the possible replacements for Kyogo in the Celtic squad.

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If you look at the forwards section of the Celtic squad on the Hoops website, out with Kyogo there are four options available, and one of those players, Albian Ajeti, is out of action with a hamstring problem.

Of the options that are available to Postecoglou, Giorgos Giakoumakis has rarely featured for the Hoops since joining in the summer due to a variety of injuries, so it is really hard to tell just how good a player he is.

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Liel Abada can play as a striker, indeed he scored twice in that role against St Johnstone before the winter break, but his best position is on the wing, where he has played most of this season.

The other striking option is the recently arrived at the club Daizen Maeda. It will be interesting to see if he features for the Hoops against Hibernian, so that he gets some game time for the Bhoys in case he has to replace Kyogo in the side.

The last thing that Celtic will want is Maeda also called up for international duty for Japan. If that happens, and with Tom Rogic likely to be called up for Australia, one wonders if Celtic will look to get the games postponed due to too many players being off on international duty.

No matter who comes in to replace Kyogo, chances are that they won’t be as good a player as the former Vissel Kobe striker. Still, Celtic should have enough quality in the squad to win the majority of the games that he could miss on international duty.