Celtic fans were given a welcome reminder about Marco Tilio on social media on Wednesday morning.
It’s easy to forget about the Australian summer arrival at present. Tilio is yet to feature for the team, having arrived at the club carrying an injury.
He has had to watch on from the sideline all summer, with his absence just as frustrating to the Celtic support as the player himself.
With that in mind, it was nice to see the club tweeting about Tilio on his 22nd birthday.
“Happy birthday to #CelticFC’s Marco Tilio,” they said early on Wednesday. (Celtic Twitter)
In typical social media style, the vast majority of the replies are of a cynical nature. Plenty of them contain the query “who?” while others bemoan a return to the Happy Birthday messages that were such a pain during the dire 2020/21 season.
Regardless, Tilio is expected back relatively soon, and it will be a big boost to have him amongst the action at long last.
The latest we have on the issue was from Brendan Rodgers a fortnight ago. At the time, he gave a positive update on both Tilio and Alistair Johnston.
On the Aussie, he said: “Marco Tilio is now out on the grass as well. He’s moving well. We expect him maybe to be middle of September, so maybe another month away.
“But he’s out on the grass which is a big step for him.”
Tilio won’t be around for this weekend or the derby at Ibrox. He could, however, be back by the time we return following the international break.
Our home clash against Dundee on September 16 could be his debut, especially if there is a desire to rest players with our Champions League opener days later.
The following week’s trip to plastic-pitch Livingston may not be an ideal place for him to feature. But a September debut does seem likely.
Let’s hope a few of his injured team-mates are also back by that stage.
In other news, recently departed Celtic pair Josip Juranovic and Moritz Jenz have met up in Berlin
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