South Korea Olympic boss Hwang Seon-hong revealed he even visited Glasgow and pleaded with Celtic to release Yang Hyun-jun for the Under 23s Asian Cup...to no avail.

The Hoops refused to release Yang for the tournament in Qatar, which doubles up as qualifiers for the football tournament in the Paris Olympics.

He would have missed up to four games in the title run-up and this weekend's Scottish Cup semi final with Aberdeen. Celtic were also joined by Brentford and Stoke City in not allowing their players to go to the Finals because it wasn't during a FIFA international date.

And disappointed Korean boss Hwang admitted he was so desperate to get Yang he even went to visit Celtic personally to state his case.

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He said: "I went to Europe myself ahead of the tournament and negotiated with of all the clubs where we had players to ask them for help and allow us to select their player.

"Unfortunately, as you can see, I was not successful.

"It is disappointing and an unfortunate situation.

"It is now difficult because the replacement players are joining up in Qatar a little late, but this is also a task that must be overcome.

"It's an opportunity for the K-League players who have replaced the European-based ones to show what they can do."