Reo Hatate to miss Trophy Day and Scottish Cup Final

The Celtic Star

·16. Mai 2025

Reo Hatate to miss Trophy Day and Scottish Cup Final

Brendan Rodgers has revealed that Reo Hatate will be unavailable for next weekend’s Scottish Cup Final clash with Aberdeen…

Reo Hatate looks angry. Aberdeen 1-5 Celtic. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

Near the conclusion of Celtic’s 5-1 victory over Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Wednesday evening, the Japanese midfielder was knocked to the ground following a heavy challenge from Pape Gueye.

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Rodgers criticised the Aberdeen forward for losing control after Hatate was seen limping off the pitch with an ice pack on his knee at the final whistle. As a result, the 27-year-old will miss both Trophy Day and the upcoming showpiece at Hampden next week.

Rodgers, who also confirmed that Cameron Carter-Vickers will return to the squad for Saturday’s league finale against St Mirren, said: “Unfortunately, he’ll be out for the final two matches, which is disappointing for both him and the team.”

Reo Hatate is visibly upset Aberdeen 1-5 Celtic. Photo Vagelis Georgariou (The Celtic Star)

“He’s had a fantastic season in terms of availability. It’s 55 games he’s been involved in and it’s just such a shame he’ll miss these last couple of games. You are probably talking that he’ll be okay for the beginning of pre-season but it’s just a shame for us and even more so for him that he misses these two games.”

“I said at the time, I thought it was a needless challenge. Everyone knew it was a free-kick and he’s just there to stop the ball from running away. For that to happen in those circumstances, it’s not nice.”

Although Hatate’s injury is a significant setback for the Treble chasers, Rodgers remains hopeful that the champions will finish the league campaign strong as they prepare to mark their fourth consecutive title.

Reo Hatate of Celtic scores to give Celtic a 3-1 lead. Celtic v Hibernian, Scottish Premiership, 10 May 2025 Photo Stuart Wallace/Shutterstock

He said: “It’s a great reward for the sacrifice for so many people have put in, especially the players over the course of the season. You get that at the end of the game but the actual game, we still have targets that we want to achieve.”

“It should be an amazing day, the weather has been incredible up here. We want to perform, we know it’s a tough game. We played St Mirren at the end of last season as well and only won right at the end. For this game here, we’ve got a real focus to continue with our performance level that we did the other night, so let’s see where it takes us in the end.”

Conor Spence

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