Celtic midfielder gets timely international recall
Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Motherwell - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - May 14, 2022 Celtic's Yosuke Ideguchi, Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda celebrates winning the Scottish Premiership with the trophy Action Images via Reuters/Molly Darlington
Reo Hatate has rejoined Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda in the Japan international squad for friendly matches against the United States and Ecuador.
Hajime Moriyasu has named a 30 man squad for the matches with the Celtic midfielder back in favour after being left out of the June fixtures against Brazil, Ghana and Tunisia.
With the World Cup starting in less than two months the September friendlies will be used to discard seven players ahead of the group matches against Germany, Costa Rica and Spain.
Hatate has been on the fringes of the international squad but on the back of impressive showings in the Champions League he will be looking to advance his claims for a place in the 23 man squad for Qatar.
?? Squad:
GK Kawashima, Gonda, Schmidt, Tani
DF Nagatomo, H. Sakai, Tanguchi, Yamane, Y. Nakayama, Tomoyasu, H. Ito, Seko
MF/FW: Haraguchi, Shibasaki, W. Endo, J. Ito, Minamino, Furuhashi, Morita, Kamada, Soma, Mitoma, D. Maeda, Hatate, Doan, A. Ueda, A. Tanaka, Machino, Kubo
— x – Dan Orlowitz (@aishiterutokyo) September 15, 2022
Flights to Japan and Ecuador between Celtic’s matches against St Mirren and Motherwell isn’t ideal for Ange Postecoglou but his squad is now big enough to rotate players. Following the Motherwell match Celtic face RB Leipzig, St Johnstone and a return match against the Germans over seven days.