Kyogo Furuhashi has established himself as the main man at Celtic right now. The Japanese forward has been a man in form and has been scoring almost for fun this season. So much so that he could end up crossing the 30-goal mark in the ongoing campaign. Thus, it is hard to think of a starting XI without him right now.
But it has not always been smooth sailing for Kyogo at Parkhead. Far from it. In fact, he had to deal with serious injury issues in the previous campaign.
One of them kept him out of action for months. And it was during a vital portion of the season as well, with Celtic making a chase for the Premiership title, without one of their best players available for selection.
It must not have been easy for Kyogo to see that from the sidelines, unable to contribute to his team, even if he wanted to do so. But it looks like everybody helped him during those difficult times.
Kyogo makes beautiful Celtic admission
As reported by Glasgow Live, Kyogo said while speaking with FIFA:
"“There’s not much you can do after the fact. The period I was unable to play was really hard but beginning with the coach, the rest of the team told me to stick around the club. Everyone on the team said ‘hurry up and come back’. It really meant a lot and became motivation to work hard and come back as soon as possible.“I just wanted to play football again. I wanted to be out there with the others and score goals, first and foremost. I realised more than ever that I had been playing with an incredible group of players and surrounded by the most incredible supporters.“I came on as a substitute, but the level of warmth almost brought tears to my eyes. To feel the love of so many people. I was really happy in that moment.”"
It was Giorgos Giakoumakis who ended up taking up the goalscoring mantle during that period of time in which Kyogo was out injured and the Greek striker did a brilliant job as well. The Japanese star’s absence did not end up stopping the Hoops as they continued their march towards the title and ultimately ended up winning the league.
That was an impressive achievement to say the very least, especially when you consider that the Hoops had finished 25 points behind the Rangers in the previous campaign. This time around, they are leading the league title race by nine points, with just nine more games left. So, Ange Postecoglou’s team look like heavy favourites to retain their title.