Celtic now know two of their Japanese stars will be heading out on international duty later this month.

The Japan FA confirmed both Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda will join up with their countrymen for the two World Cup qualifiers against Australian and Vietnam.

What does it mean for Celtic?

First of all, Kyogo not being called up could be slightly good news that if he’s approaching any sort of fitness he’d have the rest of the international break to train before potentially playing in the title run-in. The Glasgow Derby in the league would appear too soon but the Cup tie could be a jumping off point.

For Reo and Daizen – they have trips to Sydney and Saitama before heading back to join the squad for the Glasgow Derby at the beginning of April.

Daizen played in the last Glasgow derby after a very short turnover time from the last international break. Granted he was a second half sub.

That’s a lot of travelling before a big game but Celtic knew it would be the case when they signed all four of their Japanese players.

Ideguchi is still to show what he can do in a Celtic jersey and is pretty far away from a call up at the moment.