John Hartson believes ‘phenomenal’ Celtic player could start vs Rangers now

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John Hartson believes that Celtic could spring a surprise team selection on Rangers for the Glasgow Derby at the end of the month.

Brendan Rodgers has had a lot of injury issues to deal with this season and still awaiting the return of crocked trio Liel Abada, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda.

With the Japanese duo pictured in training yesterday, Hartson believes that the Celtic manager could include one of them in the crunch top-of-the-table clash.

Hartson said [The Go Radio Football Show], “I think Hatate will be a big one to come back. They’ve missed his drive and his goal threat as well. He gets up and down the pitch but he’s better in the final third.

“I just looked at it there, it’s 18 more days to go until Celtic play Rangers on the 30th and he [Brendan Rodgers] thinks it maybe early January [when Hatate returns to the team] maybe he’s not quite ready.

“But if he recovers really, really well I wouldn’t be too surprised if he’s included in that team.”

Reo Hatate’s return would be a huge boost for Celtic

Brendan Rodgers has seriously struggled to find a suitable replacement for the ‘phenomenal‘ Japan international since his injury away back in October.

The Celtic manager has rotated midfield duties between Paulo Bernardo, Tomoki Iwata, Odin Thiago Holm and David Turnbull.

Despite Turnbull’s impressive goal-scoring and Iwata’s quality in the middle of the park, none of them have managed to nail down that starting spot in beside Callum McGregor.

But it seems that may not be a worry for Rodgers soon because if Hartson is correct and Hatate is ready for the Rangers game, what a boost that would be after the Celtic manager has watched his side struggle to find that creative spark recently.

In other news, Celtic Predicted XI vs Feyenoord… Brendan Rodgers makes two changes as ‘terrific’ 26-year-old drops out