Hibs on-loan Celtic ace rewarded for Rangers performance with first World Cup call-up

Hyeokkyu Kwon played his way into the South Korea senior squad for the first time with his all-action performance at Ibrox, according to national team boss Hong Myung-bo. The Hibs midfielder was a standout as Hibs succumbed to a narrow 1-0 loss to Rangers in Glasgow yesterday, topping the stats with four shots, completing 90 per cent of his passes and doing a lot of dogged defensive work.

And the international gaffer cited that performance when explaining his decision to draft Kwon into the group to face Jordan and Iraq in two crucial World Cup qualifiers. Hong, now in his third stint as national team boss, revealed: “I checked the performance of the young players in that position and the existing players.

“Kwon played sufficiently in the team game held yesterday. I don’t know if I can use him right now, but I thought he was a good option in terms of future resources.

“The October qualifiers are the most important schedule for advancing to the World Cup finals. The players selected this time were selected by considering the areas of improvement in the matches held last September. They are mostly made up of players who play more than 70 minutes in their teams.”

Kwon has played for South Korea’s national teams at Under-17, Under-20 and Under-23 level, but has yet to win a senior cap. His call-up comes after just four starts for Hibs since agreeing a season-long loan move from parent club Celtic.