Kwon in Celtic waiting game over plans for next season as Stephen Robinson reveals talks over St Mirren return

Kwon Hyeok-Kyu's St Mirren season is over but Buddies boss Stephen Robinson hopes Celtic will let him have the Korean ace back next term.

The Saints support have taken to the 23-year-old midfielder since his January arrival. But a torn hamstring means he will sit out the final four games as they look to nail down a long-awaited return to Europe. Robinson said: “Kwon’s out for the season. He has torn his hamstring. He’s still with us, he’s still having treatment with us. But Kwon is very unlikely to be involved before the end of the season. It was an injury during training. It’s the first hamstring injury we’ve had all season, which was a real disappointment.

“Is he an option for next season? Yeah, we’ve spoken with Celtic but it’s very early stages. Celtic will have to assess what they want from Kwon and how they see him fitting in. We won’t get a decision on that any time soon. We’ll just try to build a squad in the meantime. We’d love to have him back as he has been very good for us.

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“But I’ve got a lot of irons in the fire and hopefully we’ll have a couple of things moving by early next week. We’d love to be in a position to wait. Kwon has been fantastic for us. We’ll stay in dialogue with Celtic, as we do with every team we loan players from.

“If that option is there next season then brilliant. If not there may well be other positions that are more of a priority for us. But he’s loved his time here. The only game I didn’t play him was Kilmarnock away. He has started all the other games when fit and available for me. Obviously he couldn’t play in the one against Celtic.”

St Mirren last qualified