While Celtic fans search for concrete news on his comeback date Reo Hatate appears to have enjoyed a weekend break in Paris.
The midfielder has only managed to play 20 minutes of club football since the end of October but was reported to have taken part in a bounce game against St Mirren last week at Lennoxtown.
After starting just four SPFL matches this season getting a fully fit Hatate back in his Starting XI would be a major boost for Brendan Rodgers with just eight matches left to play.
The image from his Instagram story suggests in the current parlance that Hatate was enjoying the sights of Paris over the last couple of days. It could also mean anything from a summer holiday break to a transfer wish but most observers would suggest that he has been on a city break.
With so many players on international duty Rodgers took time out to join a charity dinner in New York on Thursday night which suggests that operations at Lennoxtown have been scaled down.
That should change tomorrow as players return with most of the internationalists back on Wednesday as the build up to facing Livingston on Sunday gets underway.
On Friday word on the fitness and progress of Hatate and Callum McGregor is likely to feature in Rodgers’ media conference- as well as reaction to his appeal against a Notice of Complaint served by the SFA.
CLICK HERE for Hatate’s 23/24 appearances.
Even if fully fit he won’t play on that Livi pitch and I wouldn’t start him in the derby either. Maybe on the bench, but certainly not a starter for me. The derby’s frantic and he’ll be nowhere near match fit.
Big Big Decicions to be made for sure – And they ain’t been the best from plenty bits of this season either…
I’m just glad that it’s not myself with the responsibility for making these said decisions !
Players like Tierney and Callum McGregor maintain that players just want to play football matches.
But I maintain a modern player can play too many games.
The game is faster and players are fitter and I think you can over-work your physical limits by playing too many games.
How can Hatate play the first eighteen games of the season and then be out for months?!
There were warning signs previously that he was susceptible to injuries and the same with the other two mentioned above.
These warnings were not picked up by coaches and we lose key and influential players unexpectedly.
Perhaps Glen O’Driscoll would have been the man to pick up on this. But, where is he?
He is not here!
Someone should be looking at this issue to find an intelligent solution to it. Otherwise it is haphazrd and we end up with pure luck!