Daizen Maeda waved goodbye to Celtic for one last time on Sunday afternoon, the Japanese speedster keen to receive a proper farewell following his prior move to Ipswich Town.

Those inside Parkhead may well have hoped he'd brought his shin pads, in truth, the 28-year-old watching on as his former club limply fell to yet another derby defeat.

It was only a matter of months ago that Maeda, amid his stunning end-of-season revival, dealt a crushing blow to Rangers' own title hopes with that overhead kick, having also been the difference-maker again on the final day against Hearts.

He's a simply unique, cult figure of a footballer, the like of whom Celtic won't see again. It's no surprise that Martin O'Neill's side have struggled in his absence.

How Maeda's start to life at Ipswich has gone

2025/26 wasn't a vintage season for Maeda in a Celtic shirt, although he came good when it mattered, scoring seven times in just five post-split games to almost single-handedly drag the Bhoys to the title.

The previous campaign had been where he'd truly cemented talismanic status, however, scoring 33 goals in all competitions amid his dual role off the left and through the middle.

A relentless, pressing machine, at his best he was a terror for Premiership defences, making up for the odd wayward attempt or pass by providing the decisive moment when it mattered.

Losing him has been a significant blow, with there likely to be some frustration too at the sight of the flying forward struggling to make his mark south of the border, following a slow start at Portmand Road.

The £10m man has only come off the bench in each of Ipswich's last two Premier League games, with Maeda revealing that he's finding it tough to adjust to the increased "intensity" of English football.

For his sake, let's hope he's not another high-profile figure to toil away from Celtic Park, while more pressingly for O'Neill's side, can they ever replace him?

Why £2m Celtic star may be starting to fill Maeda's void

A fine start to the season has swiftly gone awry following the debacle away in Linz, the Scottish champions also notably losing each of their last three games in all competitions.

O'Neill's own future has been called into question, with Football FanCast exclusively reporting that Kieran McKenna remains a leading target, while the club's recruitment is again under scrutiny, having seen just two summer signings line up from the start at the weekend.

It's all become a little bit toxic heading into the international break, with the Hoops needing to figure out quite what has gone wrong over the past week or so.

Well, one obvious answer is the absence of Yang Hyun-jun, the South Korean winger currently on international duty at the Asian Games.

Signed for a fee of around £2m back in 2023, the 24-year-old took a while to get going in Scottish football, having notably come close to departing for Birmingham City late in the day last summer.

Thankfully, that £3m sale collapsed, with Yang since proving arguably the biggest beneficiary of O'Neill's arrival in the dugout, only Maeda and Benjamin Nygren scoring more goals under the veteran coach last season.

He'd also started the new campaign in a rich vein of form too, scoring and assisting three goals in seven appearances, having certainly benefited from the return to his favoured left flank.

His most crucial involvement came on his final appearance before heading off to represent his country, having raced in behind before slotting home to seal the win away at St Mirren.

While new teammate Camilo Duran may boast the high-press style of Maeda, Yang is replicating the Japanese star too in terms of his work ethic, having notably won seven duels on average per game in the Premiership this season.

As noted above, he wasn't always a favourite at Paradise, but he's certainly grown into his role as a key man over the past 12 months or so, scoring 12 times since the start of 2025/26 in all competitions.

Of course, Duran has largely been Celtic's key attacking force of late, although even the Colombian has gone off the boil in recent weeks, with the Glasgow side enduring a clear drop-off since Yang departed.

That correlation between his absence and Celtic's struggles can't be a coincidence, with O'Neill even resorting to deploying Kieran Tierney in an advanced role down the left at the weekend.

That alone lays bare just how much Yang has been missed in recent games, with Chris Sutton quipping on Sky Sports that he "must be worth £50m" now "because every game he doesn’t play, his stock grows."

Perhaps this is a case of absence making the heart grow fonder, but amid the woes of Sebastian Tounekti and co, it's clear just what a drop-off there's been without Yang on board.

On the evidence of the past week or so, it wouldn't be wrong to suggest he's arguably O'Neill's most important player.