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Celtic FC take on Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final on Sunday and due to the injury to Giakoumakis, Kyogo Furuhashi will have to lead the line in this high-profile encounter.

Georgios Giakoumakis picked up a hamstring injury during Celtic’s game vs St Johnstone last weekend and he will not be able to recover in time to feature in the Old Firm Derby. This is going to be a major cause of concern since Giakoumakis has been in good form lately and to make things worse, Kyogo Furuhashi has just returned from an injury himself.

Kyogo Furuhashi has been on the sidelines since December with a hamstring problem and he only made a comeback last weekend vs St Johnstone.

He played just 16 minutes in that match so it’s obviously a cause of concern that a player who’s just coming back from an injury will lead the line on Sunday. His manager has though assured everyone that the Japanese international has gotten back his fitness and rhythm and will be ready for the semi-final.

The manager said in his pre-match press conference: “I don’t think he’s[Furuhashi] ready to play 90 or 120 minutes, but he’s ready to play. It was great to get him some match minutes last week, and he’s now had two solid weeks of training where he’s done everything with the group.

‘We train pretty hard, so he’s matched those levels, so that means he’s ready to play and that’s the important thing.’

“With Giakoumakis, the prognosis wasn’t anything too serious which is pleasing. We’ll probably keep him out this weekend, but we’re pretty confident he’ll be available for next weekend.

“Dave Turnbull trained, he’s fine and the only other one was James Forrest, who trained and he’s fine as well.”

Kyogo Furuhashi was a regular starter before he picked up the injury on Boxing Day so quality-wise, he can very much carve open the Rangers FC defence. The main issue though will be his competitive fitness because no amount of training ground drills will be enough to get him ready for the Old Firm Derby.

The 27-year-old has netted eight goals in 15 goals this season in the Premiership and Ange Postecoglou will be hoping that he can come up with the goods as early as possible on Sunday.

Kyogo Furuhashi will probably get about 60 to 70 minutes on the pitch before he is replaced by someone like Liel Abada but since this is a knockout tournament, extra time will be a very realistic option.

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