Daizen Maeda OUT of Celtic vs Rangers as striker to also miss crunch Hearts clash

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Celtic will be without striker Daizen Maeda for crunch showdowns with Hearts and Rangers after he was called up for Japan's World Cup qualifiers.

But Reo Hatate will be available for the vital fixtures, which also includes a home clash with Dundee United sandwiched between the visit to Gorgie on January 26 and hosting their biggest rivals a week later.

Japan face China on January 27 before they take on group leaders Saudi Arabia on February 1 with both fixtures at home.The Premiership's winter break was moved back after fan numbers were capped at just 500, and while the February 2 clash with Rangers will go ahead in front of a full Parkhead, the new date presents issues of its own.Ange Postecoglou will also be without Tom Rogic who has been called up by Australia.

Celtic talisman Kyogo Furuhashi is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury and a major doubt for Rangers in any case, so has not been called by his country. Get all the latest Celtic news sent straight to your Inbox every day by signing up to our newsletter.We cover every morsel of information regarding your favourite club in the form of articles, videos and podcasts.The newsletter will arrive every day at 12pm, giving you a round up of the best stories we've covered that in the last 24 hours.To sign up, simply enter your email address into the link here.And if you aren't already, make sure you join the conversation over on our Celtic Facebook group and Record Sport Instagram.Similarly Yosuke Ideguchi has not been recalled by his country and was always viewed as a a long shot.However, Maeda has been included in the team to face China and Saudi Arabia.Hajime Moriyasu had initially feared that Covid guidelines would permit him to call only players based in