Reo Hatate suffers Celtic injury hammer blow as Brendan Rodgers reveals hamstring issue is a 'bad one'

Reo Hatate will be out for a number of weeks with a hamstring injury, it has been confirmed.

The Japanese went down early in Celtic's 2-2 draw with Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, with new man Paulo Bernardo coming in to steady the ship. The integral midfielder has been luckless with injuries in the past and sparked major concern for Brendan Rodgers' men during the showpiece game on Wednesday evening. Hatate only recovered from a similar problem recently after sustaining a hamstring injury in August that saw him miss the opening sequence of the season.

But now the 25-year-old, who ended transfer speculation by penning new terms this month, could miss a number of games including the return leg with Atletico at the Wanda Metropolitano next month. Celtic travel to face Hibernian in the capital on Saturday but will be without the former Kawasaki Frontale man.

Rodgers confirmed in his pre-match press conference it was a "bad one" that Hatate suffered and then he will be unavailable for a "few weeks". He said: "No definitive timeline but he will definitely be out for a few weeks. We are waiting for it to settle down, waiting on the result and we will see where he is at. But it looked quite a bad one.

"If you watch the game, the first 35 seconds he has overstretched and he's felt it very early on. It's such a shame for him, it's a different one but he was out with a hamstring last year. It's the other one this time, we need to try and get to the bottom of it."

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