Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate have been left out of the Japan squad for the World Cup Finals with Daizen Maeda the only Celtic player named in Hajime Moriyasu’s 26 man squad.
Hatate seemed to be a borderline case but the decision to leave out Kyogo who was involved in the qualifying campaign other than when he was out injured with a serious hamstring issue.
The news will be a big blow to the Celtic duo but they have the stage tomorrow night in Madrid to remind Moriyasu what he is missing out on when they feature against Real in the Champions League.
Earlier this year Moriyasu spent time with Celtic, discussing his World Cup preparations and watching the players in training.
It won’t be much of a consolation for either of the players but they will now travel to Australia for two friendly matches in the Sydney Super Cup.
Josip Juranovic and Aaron Mooy seem fairly certain to go to the World Cup Finals but Cameron Carter-Vickers is a borderline call for the USA.
The full squad is:
Goalkeepers: Shuichi Gonda (Shimizu S-Pulse), Daniel Schmidt (Sint-Truiden), Eiji Kawashima (Strasbourg)
Defenders: Miki Yamane (Kawasaki Frontale), Hiroki Sakai (Urawa Reds), Maya Yoshida (Schalke), Takehiro Tomiyasu (Arsenal), Shogo Taniguchi (Kawasaki Frontale), Ko Itakura (Borussia Monchengladbach), Hiroki Ito (Stuttgart), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Yuta Nakayama (Huddersfield)
Midfielders: Wataru Endo (Stuttgart), Hidemasa Morita (Sporting), Ao Tanaka (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Gaku Shibasaki (Leganes), Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton & Hove Albion), Daichi Kamada (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ritsu Doan (Freiburg), Junya Ito (Reims), Takumi Minamino (Monaco), Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad), Yuki Soma (Nagoya Grampus)
Forwards: Daizen Maeda (Celtic), Takuma Asano (Bochum), Ayase Ueda (Cercle Brugge)
CLICK HERE for full squad announcement.
no no no, there are 20 Europe-based players here.
There was just no room for a utility player like Hatate, and Kyogo doesn’t quite fit the offensive style. Haraguchi and Osako are form/fitness.
— x – Dan Orlowitz (@aishiterutokyo) November 1, 2022
Bad news and I feel for players but in any other world cup it would be terrible but in this world cup which is a bad for all human rights to hold the world cup in a country with a disgraceful human rights cv I surprised top players earning millions a month aren’t boycotting this world cup I’m sure some teams will be forced by there government to withdraw you can’t pick and choose persecution of people the like to show anti racism card at champion league football it makes it look like a sham then hold the world cup of football in a country with zero human rights money over runs everything fifa are the most corrupt association and have to be investigate all leading members F.B.I proved the corruption let them do it again for that reason I happy there not going but I would have preferred them to do it them selve and top footballers should be ashamed of themselves
Yeah, I won’t be in a hurry to catch the matches in this World Cup. Give it a miss, really. Rather watch Celtic in Aus. And then the Tour of Japan in the summer. Don’t really need this World Cup at all!