Celtic midfielder Aaron Mooy has perhaps unexpectedly become an important player for the Hoops this season, he has maybe played a lot more football than most people would have expected – making 20 appearances for the Bhoys under Ange Postecoglou.

Mooy has been a regular for Australia over the past 10 years, making 52 appearances for his country, and that looks set to continue this evening (22nd November), when Australia play their first game in the 2022 World Cup, and it will be a tough game for Mooy and his Australian teammates.

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Australia’s first game is against the defending World Cup champions, France. The French might have lost the likes of Karim Benzama, N’Golo Kante and Christopher Nkunku to injury, but they will still be a very difficult opponent for the 32-year-old Mooy and his teammates.

One man who will no doubt be closely watching Mooy in action is his current Hoops manager Ange Postecoglou. The Celtic boss of course used to manage Australia, and he took charge of them at a World Cup. He will be hoping that his current Celtic midfielder will feature from the start for his native country, and will be able to have an impact against one of the best teams in the World.

You have to imagine that as he is 32-years-old, this will be the only World Cup that Mooy features in, and it really is a bit of a surprise that he has featured so often for the Hoops this season, but that shows just how valuable the Celtic manager feels that Mooy is to the Hoops first-team.

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It will be interesting to see how often Mooy features for Celtic when Callum McGregor returns from injury, as both players play in roughly the same position. Mooy might still feature on a regular basis, as you can tell that the Celtic boss is a fan of the player, he signed him in the first place after all, and Mooy had been linked with a move to the Hoops from almost the time that Postecoglou arrived at the club.

How Mooy fares in the World Cup probably won’t have any impact on how he performs for the Hoops, but if he can help Australia get one of the most surprising results of all time against France, then he will surely take a lot of confidence from that. Mooy will need to be at his best to help Australia get a positive result. It is good to see Celtic players in the biggest tournament in football, and hopefully Mooy is able to have an impact on the game.