Yang Hyun-jun has gone public with a hamstring problem picked up on international duty, and the timing could hardly be worse for a Celtic side that has just endured one of its grimmest weeks in years.
Celtic winger Yang Hyun-jun has confirmed he is carrying a minor hamstring injury after missing South Korea’s Asian Games quarter-final against Vietnam, an absence that comes as Yang’s unavailability lands right in the middle of three defeats in a week for the Hoops, two of them at the hands of Rangers and the other to Ferencváros in the Europa League.
The disclosure came from Yang himself rather than any Celtic statement, and it’s worth being clear about that. This is a player being honest about his own body while on national duty in Japan, not a club medical bulletin, and according to the Glasgow Times there is no diagnosis beyond Yang’s own description of the issue as a minor hamstring strain, and no timeline attached to it.
Why He Was Away in the First Place
Yang travelled as one of the over-age players in South Korea’s under-23 squad for the Asian Games, having played through the group stage before the injury forced him out of the last-eight tie. He’s 24, he’s impressed Martin O’Neill enough to become a genuine fixture in the side, and supporters will remember exactly how badly Celtic missed his energy the last time he was on international commitments, not least after his impact in the comeback against St Mirren. That’s before you even get into the club’s long-term planning around him, which included the noise last summer about a new contract taking him through to 2030.
An Ill-Timed Blow
None of that changes the here and now. Celtic have just lost three games in seven days without him, and while nobody is pretending Yang alone would have turned those results around, his absence stripped O’Neill of a genuine attacking outlet at the worst possible moment. Add in the news that Haissem Hassan withdrew from the Egypt squad for what was described as intensive treatment, and the picture around Celtic’s wide areas is suddenly a lot more uncertain than it looked a fortnight ago.
Yang himself insists his focus is on getting back for the semi-finals and final with South Korea, which tells you the injury is being treated as short-term rather than serious. Whether that optimism translates into a swift return to Glasgow is genuinely unclear, and until either the player or the club offers a firmer update, this is one Celtic fans will simply have to sit with.
Get well soon, Yang.
