Celtic have had their injury problems in recent times. It was only against Ross County that Carl Starfelt made his way back into the matchday squad, taking his place on the bench, after missing the entirety of pre-season. Both Yosuke Ideguchi and Reo Hatate are out injured at the moment, and fans were handed a major worry surrounding Daizen Maeda as well.
Maeda limped off the pitch at half-time and was replaced by Liel Abada at the break. Naturally, there are concerns about his situation.
Fortunately, it looks like it might not be a serious injury for the Japanese international star, which will come as relief for sure.
As reported by The Celtic Way, Postecoglou said while talking about Maeda and the decision to bring on Abada at the break:
"“He got a bit of a knock, but he’s OK. It’s nothing serious. He’ll be fine.“I also just felt that second half I knew we’d get a lot of the ball, we had the wind behind us and Liel in those situations gets on the end of things and can beat his man.“I thought he could make an impact and he did.”"
Massive Maeda update after he picked up knock in Celtic win vs Ross County
Abada came on and made his presence felt by scoring the third goal for Celtic to seal the 3-1 win on the day. And if Maeda was forced to spend some time on the sidelines, it does feel like the club have enough options at the moment to deal with it.
Giorgos Giakoumakis has had to spend a large amount of time sitting on the bench. That is a problem as the Greek striker has been in spectacular form in recent times for Celtic and it does feel like the Hoops are not making the most of it.
But at the same time, it is a challenge to get both Giakoumakis and Kyogo on the pitch at the same time, and that is a problem that Postecoglou will need to find the solution to as soon as possible.
When it comes to Maeda, we can only hope that it is a minor problem and he is back fit and available as soon as possible.