Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers has made a surprise U-turn regarding Hayato Inamura.
The boss outlined that when the defender initially made the move to Parkhead, he wouldn't be part of the first team.
After Inamura impressed in the first half of a friendly with Cork City on Tuesday evening, though, Rodgers has changed his tune: "I'm not fixed on it," he said [RecordSport].
"The feeling from us all was, okay, we'll bring him in and see how he does pre-season, thinking that he may need to get out and play.
"But I always judge players in the pre-season on how they look and are they going to be capable.
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"He's certainly shown in the few days training he's so smooth with the ball. Not only that, he plays forward.
“When you play for Celtic or any of the big clubs, you have to pass the ball forward.
"You've got to have the personality to take the ball and play and he has that.
"I've got to say, he surprised me. We knew that he was going to come in and I felt that maybe it was going to be a bit more settling in for him and maybe alone or whatever, but we'll see how he works.
"He's obviously not been playing that long.
"I think we see that with the Japanese boys, they go through university and they're not actually professionals until they're 23, 24.
"So he's late into the game and then it's always about the adaption and how he comes across.
"But in these first days training, he's so competent with the ball. He's a good size.
"He'll need to develop physically, that's natural when you come into European football.
"But his comfort on the ball, his willingness to attack is really good. So we'll see how he looks over the remaining games."
Inamura joined Celtic from J-League side Albirex Niigata in a deal reported to be worth £250,000 last week.
