Striker Kyogo Furuhashi saw his Celtic injury woes resurface for Stade Rennes after being forced off just minutes into a substitute cameo.
The 30-year-old left the Scottish Premiership behind last month for a crack at Ligue 1 as he looked to fire the relegation threatened side to survival – but has quickly been put on the fringes of the squad. Boss Jorge Sampaoli was shown the door just days after pushing for a £10million move for the Celtic hero – to be replaced by Habib Beye.
That has seen the Japan international make just one start since his Celtic Park departure – while he failed to make it off the bench in last weeks victory over Saint-Etienne. Beye gave Kyogo the task of rescuing last weekend’s clash with Lille as 10 man Rennes chased a 2-0 deficit. However, things went from bad to worse for the struggling side with Kyogo limping off just minutes later with a shoulder injury.
Kyogo dealt with persistent shoulder problems throughout his time in Scotland – with Brendan Rodgers warning the frontman that he faced a four-month layoff and surgery if there was another flare up: “He’s had this issue for a long time – since long before he came to Celtic. It’s something he had in Japan and he’s managing his shoulder – and from time to time it gets a little bit irritable and sore.
“He could have surgery on it, but that probably takes him out for about four months. It’s only him that can decide that, because you can see that a lot of times he gets through games fine.
“But then sometimes he’ll fall, and maybe it’ll be awkward and he has an irritation. He’s a 29-year-old man, so he’ll understand what he wants to do.”
Rennes boss Beye was left frustrated by the flare up – having used up all his substitutions and being left with nine men to finish the game: “Red cards, injuries, they don’t help but I don’t want to use them as an excuse. Kyogo Furuhashi’s shoulder injury forces us to change system and, at that moment, we have a highlight, we had a boost of energy.
“I think our choices in the final third were not always the right ones, we lacked precision and offensive weight to put them under pressure. The problem is that, at one point, we played with 9, with the temporary exit of Kyogo Furuhashi.
“When you play with 10 against a team like Lille it’s difficult, then with 9… But I liked the state of mind of my players. We had the will to want to win the match with our intentions, and with what we put in place. We were dominated but the will was there.”