This was an excellent international break for Celtic skipper Callum McGregor.

The midfielder turned in a performance to savour for his country as the Hoops hero gave Scotland an excellent chance of qualifying for the World Cup.

However, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows over the international break for the Bhoys.

On the chalkboard

Sadly, Celtic will now be without Kyogo Furuhashi for potentially seven matches.

The Japanese striker was away with his country and had to be withdrawn on the 50-minute mark of their match with China.

Kyogo went down holding his knee and the assessment doesn’t look particularly good.

It will be a big blow to Celtic as the forward has been nothing short of sublime since arriving from the J-League.

His pace and frantic energy is a sight to behold and he has scared plenty of Premiership defences already. He has a Parkhead hat-trick to his name and has bagged seven goals in just nine outings.

Fortunately, Celtic do have someone else in their armoury.

The solution

If this problem had occurred earlier in the season then Ange Postecoglou’s solution would be simple; unleash Odsonne Edouard.

Yet, with the Frenchman no longer a Celtic player, he must seek alternative options.

One man to whom he could turn is Albian Ajeti, but after a grand haul of only six goals last season, it’s unlikely that he will be the man to dig them out against Ross County on Saturday afternoon.

Instead, Postecoglou must turn to a new signing in Giorgos Giakoumakis.

The £2.25m-rated striker came to the club from VVV-Venlo after finishing as the Eredivisie’s top scorer last season with 26 goals.

With that in mind, he is the exact man you’d want to replace someone like Furuhashi.

He is a ruthless penalty box poacher and, if he receives the type of service Kyogo has all season, he should certainly score plenty of goals for this Hoops side.

That was the assessment of Pierre Van Hooijdonk, who said: “I think he’s capable of scoring 20-plus goals for Celtic this season.

“If you use him properly and play to his strengths, he’s going to get the club a lot of goals. The level of his finishing is top class. If you look at his goals, most of them are really good goals, with a real identity. They’re not all just about power.”

Giakoumakis is a different player in the fact that he prefers to be closer to goal than Kyogo, whose best strengths are running in behind and coolly slotting away one-on-ones.

Despite that, he is evidently their best replacement for the game with Ross County.

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