Celtic fans' favourites Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate have been left out of Japan's squad for the World Cup.
The duo are key players at club level for boss Ange Postecoglou, but they won't be on the plane to Qatar later this month - but Daizen Maeda HAS made the cut. He's played the most minutes for the Samurai Blue in the qualification process to reach the finals and boss Hajime Moriyasu has kept faith by handing him a spot in the 26-man squad.
Hatate is yet to make his full break through at international level so was seen as an outsider to land a place in the pool but the decision to leave out Kyogo will come as more of a surprise. He netted a stunner in Celtic's weekend win over Livingston to take his season tally to nine so far after hitting 20 goals in his debut campaign - despite time out on the injury table.
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Hatate's solo cap for his country came in a 45 minute cameo against Vietnam. Japan will come up against Germany, Spain and Costa Rice in Group E in what will be a stern test with two heavyweight nations in their section.
Japan's World Cup squad in full
Goalkeepers: Shuichi Gonda (Shimizu S-Pulse), Daniel Schmidt (Sint-Truiden), Eiji Kawashima (Strasbourg)
Defenders: Miki Yamane (Kawasaki Frontale), Hiroki Sakai (Urawa Reds), Maya Yoshida (Schalke), Takehiro Tomiyasu (Arsenal), Shogo Taniguchi (Kawasaki Frontale), Ko Itakura (Borussia MG), Junya Ito (Stuttgart), Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Yuta Nakayama (Huddersfield)
Midfielders: Wataru Endo (Stuttgart), Hidemasa Morita (Sporting), Ao Tanaka (Fortuna Dusseldorf), Gaku Shibasaki (Leganes), Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton & Hove Albion), Daichi Kamada (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ritsu Doan (Freiburg), Junya Ito (Reims), Takumi Minamino (Monaco), Takefusa Kubo (Real Sociedad), Yuki Soma (Nagoya Grampus)
Forwards: Daizen Maeda (Celtic), Takuma Asano (Bochum), Ayase Ueda (Cercle Brugge)
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