Celtic fans will be all too familiar with the AFC Asian Cup, which has left Brendan Rodgers minus five senior players during the month of January.
Hyeongyu Oh, Reo Hatate, Daizen Maeda and Yang Hyun-jun are all involved at the tournament with South Korea and Japan, who are both among the favourites to claim to win silverware in Qatar.
Marco Tilio was also called up by Australia boss Graham Arnold and is the Socceroos’ sole representative from Celtic in the Gulf region.
The 22-year-old, who joined from Melbourne City for £1.5 million in the summer, has featured just twice for the club in cameo appearances this term against Motherwell and Hibernian [Transfermarkt].
Injury issues and difficulty getting up to speed have contributed to his underwhelming stint in Glasgow so far and a loan move elsewhere could now be on the cards this window for Tilio.
His former club, Melbourne City and Sydney FC are reportedly keen to secure his services and he has recently indicated that he would be open to a temporary spell elsewhere.
Celtic winger Marco Tilio appears at AFC Asian Cup for Australia
During his recovery from injury back in November last year, Tilio took a big step forward by starting for Australia’s Under-23 side against Saudi Arabia in an international friendly.
Now fully fit, the Sydney-born man has managed to go one further by appearing off the bench for their senior side as a stoppage-time substitute in a 1-1 draw against Uzbekistan.
Needing just a draw to finish top of Group B, the Socceroos have managed to go unbeaten across three fixtures and now earned a favourable passage to the knockout phase [ABC].
Tilio has failed to ignite his Celtic career so far; however, success on the international stage will only make him go up in Rodgers’ estimation.
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