Reo Hatate fired up for Celtic's mega week as Rodgers spots sign he's ready to work harder than EVER

Brendan Rodgers reckons Celtic will have a full-fired up Reo Hatate following the midfielder’s Japan snub.

The Hoops ace travelled the globe to report for national duty but didn’t get a minute of game time in the World Cup qualifying thrashings of China and Bahrain. Daizen Maeda scored from the bench in the first game but was left out of the second while Kyogo didn’t even get a nod for the squad.

Rodgers has sympathy for Hatate at being left cooling his heels – but he insisted the midfield powerhouse will be motivated to star for Celts and barge his way into Hajime Moriyasu's side. He said: “I felt a wee bit for him. I'd seen in the first game that he wasn't involved and obviously, Daizen played and scored, which was great.

“But then he wasn't involved in the second game. I was disappointed for Reo because he travels around the world to have the opportunity to play. He's still been positive. In my conversations with him, he's going to work even harder and just try to be as consistent as he possibly can be.

“Hopefully that will be a great motivating factor for him into this next number of games. It's not about proving people wrong, you've just got to prove your point all the time and then see where it takes you. Hopefully if they can all continue to do that, then they get the opportunities.

"But if not, we benefit from it in a way because they're fresh. But it’s also respecting that Japan probably have a really good squad of players.”

Record Sport this week revealed Celtic are looking to hand Alistair Johnston a new bumper deal. The full-back is fit after an injury scare with Canada and is fit to face Hearts. Rodgers said: “I know that we'd love to have him here for as long as he possibly can and he's got three and