Marco Tilio reveals Celtic injury torment as gets honest over battling 'nine wingers'

Marco Tilio revealed that an injury dashed his hopes of making a mark at Celtic this season. He returned to Melbourne City on loan after a less than impressive stint with the Hoops, who he joined in June for £1.5 million.

The 22-year-old believes that an injury he sustained before signing his five-year deal with Celtic hindered his chances of impressing Brendan Rodgers. He explained: "I went away with the Australia Under 23s and got injured. I then thought it would be a week-long injury. I signed the contract at Celtic and then obviously I was injured and out for three months."

Tilio added that competing with eight or nine other wingers who were as good, if not better, made it a tough road to get into the Celtic team. He said: ""So it doesn't help, and then you're competing with eight or nine other wingers that are just as good as you, if not better, and it was always going to be a difficult road trying to get into that team of Celtic and I was always playing catch-up. But I believed I was ready to leave Australia. I'd done my time here, and I thought I'd done really well and the build-up all the way until then when I made that decision to go there, I thought I was ready."

He admitted that predicting outcomes in football is challenging. Despite feeling he had matched the speed of the other players and deserved a chance to play, he acknowledged the high quality of the players at Celtic. He concluded: "So it was a tough six months for my football, but it's always a learning curve for me and we'll see what happens in the future.

"But no, I don't think I left Australia too early. Now it's an important six months for me. I want to help Australia qualify for another Olympics, and for myself, if I can get myself to another