Nicolas Kuhn was hungry for Celtic transfer after tooth extraction forced 12 day fast on German flying machine

Sometimes asking questions at a player’s big unveiling can feel a bit like pulling teeth.

But yesterday, as Nicolas Kuhn did the media rounds inside Celtic Park, it was precisely the opposite. And that’s not just because the German new boy happens to be as polite as he is charming. It’s because only a few weeks ago he literally was having his teeth pulled out in a dentist’s chair in Vienna – and the 24-year-old is still getting over the whole nightmarish procedure.

Kuhn couldn’t eat a meal for 12 days. And when the pain finally eased off he found himself having sleepless nights after discovering that Brendan Rodgers wanted him in Glasgow – and that Rapid Vienna had no intention of letting him leave. All in all then it’s been a tumultuous few weeks for Kuhn who hasn’t stopped to catch breath since he was finally given permission to catch the flight to his new home and put pen to paper on a bumper five-and-a-half year contract.

Asked if there was a moment when he feared this day might never arrive he said: “Yeah, they wanted to keep me in Vienna. They knew that if I was staying fit and played all the games they could even get more money or something.

“But I had a good relationship with the president and all the staff and trainers, so I was hoping that it would go quickly. I had some meetings with them and of course they wanted to keep me but I told them it was a great opportunity and I wanted to make that next step.

“I don’t know what more they wanted but they said maybe I can stay a little bit longer. But I told them I really want to come here and in the end I think it was a good result.

“In the beginning when the interest first came I knew it was not going to be so easy that they will just let me go and say goodbye! I