{"id":218613,"date":"2025-10-22T19:54:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T19:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/218613\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T19:54:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T19:54:10","slug":"not-available-brendan-rodgers-rules-celtic-star-out-of-sturm-graz-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/218613\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Not available&#8217;&#8230; Brendan Rodgers rules Celtic star out of Sturm Graz encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Brendan Rodgers has confirmed that Daizen Maeda will not feature for Celtic against Sturm Graz on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.67hailhail.com\/news\/celtic-left-sweating-over-daizen-maeda-after-japan-make-decision-on-winger\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Maeda was called up to the Japan national team squad<\/a> for the October fixtures against Paraguay and Brazil, but he did not play in either due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>He felt his hamstring tighten during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.67hailhail.com\/match\/celtic-player-ratings-vs-motherwell-as-only-one-player-scores-more-than-6-10-despite-late-win\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3-2 win over Motherwell<\/a> and it forced him out of Japan\u2019s two friendly games.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year-old did not recover in time to face Dundee on Sunday as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.67hailhail.com\/match\/three-hard-truths-fans-learned-about-brendan-rodgers-and-celtic-after-dundee-humiliation\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Celtic lost 2-0<\/a>, and he won\u2019t be in action against the Austrian Bundesliga champions.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2230442624-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Daizen Maeda of Celtic during the UEFA Champions League Play-offs Round First Leg match between Celtic and Kairat Almaty at Celtic Park\" class=\"wp-image-309103\" \/>Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt \u2013 AMA\/Getty ImagesRodgers confirms Maeda not fit to face Sturm Graz<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.67hailhail.com\/tag\/brendan-rodgers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rodgers<\/a> said at his Wednesday press conference: \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.67hailhail.com\/tag\/daizen-maeda\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Daizen<\/a> is not available, no. He is suffering stiffness in his lower back and his hamstrings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the last game against Motherwell before the international break, he just felt his hamstring, so we\u2019ve got some positive news on it, but no timeline on it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe certainly won\u2019t be available for tomorrow, and we\u2019ll see where he\u2019s at for the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Alistair Johnston should be included in the matchday squad having <a href=\"https:\/\/www.67hailhail.com\/match\/brendan-rodgers-explains-alistair-johnstons-omission-from-celtic-squad-vs-dundee\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">missed out against the Dark Blues<\/a> at the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Johnston suffered a serious hamstring injury in August but has resumed full training ahead of schedule. Now he\u2019s in contention to start versus Sturm Graz.<\/p>\n<p>Rodgers said: \u201cAli Johnston should be okay, all being well. So that\u2019s great news for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Who will Rodgers play as Celtic\u2019s attacking trio?<\/p>\n<p>With Maeda definitely ruled out, it means there is a chance the same attacking triumvirate who started against Dundee could be named.<\/p>\n<p>But Celtic were absolutely hopeless at Dens Park, so you would imagine Rodgers will make some changes.<\/p>\n<p>Sebastian Tounekti should start on the right wing, with Michel-Ange Balikwisha handed a chance to impress on the left.<\/p>\n<p>Kelechi Iheanacho will probably get the nod as the central striker, with Johnny Kenny an option off the bench. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brendan Rodgers has confirmed that Daizen Maeda will not feature for Celtic against Sturm Graz on Thursday. Maeda&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[12876,7336,35119,2600,218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-218613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-alistair-johnston","tag-brendan-rodgers","tag-daizen-maeda","tag-europa-league","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}