Ki to miss Celtic’s European opener due to Olympics

Published on 14/07/2012 02:13

It was last night confirmed that Ki Sung-Yueng will miss at least one of Celtic’s Champions League qualifying matches after the South Korean was named in his nation’s Olympic squad.

The in-demand midfielder has been handed the opportunity to go for gold at London 2012 after being named in Hong Myung-Bo’s 18-man selection.

The 23-year-old, who has been strongly linked with a move to English Premier League side QPR in recent days, will line-up against Mexico, Gabon and Switzerland in Group B of the 
tournament, which gets underway on 26 July.

With South Korea’s final first-round match taking place on 1 August, Ki will certainly miss the first leg of Celtic’s Champions League third qualifying round tie.

Should the Asian nation progress into the latter stages of the tournament, the 45-cap playmaker could also miss the second leg of the crunch encounter, which is due to take place on 7 or 8 August.

With each federation officially submitting their squad lists to Fifa 
yesterday, it was also confirmed that Emilio Izaguirre will not feature for Honduras.

Meanwhile Scotland cap Jordan Rhodes has been named as one of four “standby players” for Stuart Pearce’s Team GB squad.

Hampden Park will host two men’s internationals during the Olympic football tournament, with Spain facing Belarus on 26 July and Egypt playing Belarus on 1 August.