Celtic winger one win from Asian Games gold and military service exemption

Yang has been away from Celtic for several weeks representing his country in Japan, although the 24-year-old has not featured since South Korea’s opening group-stage encounter against Qatar.

The tournament carries particular significance for South Korea’s players, with a gold medal granting an exemption from the country’s mandatory military service requirements.

South Korea moved within touching distance of that prize after coming from behind to defeat China in Wednesday’s semi-final in Osaka.

They fell behind for the first time in the tournament when highly-rated 19-year-old Wang Yudong finished an impressive Chinese move to open the scoring.

Towering striker Young-jun Lee responded just 11 minutes later to bring South Korea level before the game remained finely poised heading into its closing stages.

Bae Jun-ho then delivered the decisive moment with less than ten minutes remaining, completing the comeback and sending South Korea into the final.

Yang was an unused substitute but joined in the celebrations afterwards as his teammates secured their place in the gold-medal match.

The Celtic winger recently revealed that he has been dealing with a hamstring problem, explaining his lack of minutes since the opening game of the tournament.

South Korea will now face either Japan or Uzbekistan in the final in Toyota on Saturday, October 3, with kick-off scheduled for 11.30am UK time.