Martin O'Neill explains Kyogo Furuhashi Celtic decision and stance on Callum McGregor transfer

Reports emerged this week of Celtic's interest in bringing the Birmingham City striker back to the club on loan for the rest of the season just 12 months after he was sold to Rennes for £10million.

Furuhashi has failed to hit the heights since departing Parkhead, enduring a goalless six months in France before being transferred to Birmingham following their promotion to the Championship last summer.

The Japenese international has scored only one goal for the Blues and made only eight starts in a far cry from the prolific marksman who netted 85 goals in 165 appearances for Celtic.

O'Neill had hoped to lure the 30-year-old back to Celtic after being re-appointed as manager until the end of the season following the sacking of Wilfried Nancy. However, the move now appears dead in the water after Furuhashi indicated a desire to remain at St Andrews.

"I would have said that would probably be unlikely," O'Neill said in response to the quesiton of Kyogo returning to Celtic. "No, I think everything is premature. I think there is a viewpoint that he wants to really prove himself at Birmingham, which is no surprise.

Birmingham boss Chris Davies echoed O’Neill’s sentiments and insisted that Furuhashi remains a part of his plans for the second half of the campaign.

Asked about the 30-year-old's future, he said: "Kyogo is our player, who has been playing more matches recently than he has done in the last few months.

"The plan is that Kyogo continues in that vein - gets his goals and gets his game moving. So I'll support him to do that. We've had no discussions at the moment about anything other than Kyogo giving his best and doing his best for Birmingham City.

"Personally, I think he's going to stay here and potentially battle through whatever comes in front of him.

"Kyogo cannot be doing any more in terms of his own efforts with the club. So we've been supporting him and we'll be going along with that. Again though, like a lot of things, we'll obviously see as things progress through January where everyone is and make sure everyone is on the same page.

"But, certainly at this moment in time, Kyogo is an important player in the squad and will continue to be so."

O'Neill also addressed recent reports which claimed former Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers was hoping to lure Callum McGregor to Saudi Arabia after taking over at Al Qadsiah.

"I haven't spoken to him about that at all," O'Neill admitted. "And yeah, I saw the rumours, or I heard the rumours. I don't think you can see rumours, can you? You hear rumours.

"So the same sort of thing, but I haven't had to speak to him at all. I think he loves it here. There's time for that, but if you're asking me, would he go in this transfer window, that would be a major shock, a major disappointment to me. And yeah, I don't think that we could cope with that."