Tomoki Iwata thought Celtic fans were booing his performance

After recovering from a lingering ankle injury, and with his countryman Reo Hatate still some weeks out from returning from his own spell on the sidelines, the 26-year-old has worked his way into a highly competitive central berth along with club captain Callum McGregor and Matt O’Riley.

And with impressive showings in the 3-1 victory over Motherwell and 7-1 win against Dundee in the last seven days, he will be looking to help his side collect a further three points as they hunt down Rangers for top spot in the Premiership when they take on Hearts at Tynecastle this afternoon.

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“Now I start to be featuring in the games, I’m really happy about it and now I can look to contribute more towards the team winning,” Iwata said.

“Before that I was obviously frustrated no being involved in the team because of the injuries or different situations but then also I was hoping that soon I would get the opportunities so, yeah, it was a difficult moment but now I’m happy.”

On the crowd’s reaction to his substitution against Motherwell, he added: “At the beginning I was confused, like, ‘Is it toward me?’ or what? But then I think it was, in a way, a compliment and I take it very well. So I just want to meet the expectations now.

“It will definitely be a difficult game [against Hearts], but if we just follow our game plan and we perform well and individually – every player can play better than Wednesday, even – then the possibility to win the game against Hearts at Tynecastle will be even higher, so we just need to do our best.”