In the wake of his side's entertaining 6-4 over Queen's Park at The City Stadium, Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers hailed Kyogo Furuhashi while underscoring the importance of friendly matches at this point of the year.
The Japanese forward opened the scoring on the night in Glasgow's southside and netted a hat-trick before being substituted just over the hour mark.
"He’s looking top," said the manager on Kyogo. "He's been very bright, I've got to say. He's worked very, very hard. He's come back, he's had a nice break.
"He's worked really hard in the training. He's looked so bright in the games that we've had. Tonight, you see the sharpness and brightness. So it's really nice for him."
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Rodgers went on to say that despite the fact these games are non-competitive, he wants his players to treat them as a proving ground ahead of the 2024/25 campaign.
"It's only pre-season, but like I said to the young players before the game, this is a big opportunity for you as a senior player, a young player, to go and make a good start. He's hit four goals in two games, which is great.
"I say to the players, and Kyogo typified that - for me, they're not pre-season friendlies. They never are. It's a pre-season test. When you're a Celtic player, you walk out at a big club, it's never a friendly, because the other team will always raise the game. So, see them as a test.
"Kyogo, you can see he's pressing, he's running, he's moving. Everything was really, really good. So, he started very, very bright."
