Marco Tilio has now issued a plea amid Celtic loan exit speculation

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Marco Tilio admits he is desperate for game time as the Celtic outcast looks for solutions this January transfer window.

The Aussie winger was signed in the summer from Melbourne City for a fee of £1.5m. But he’s endured a nightmare time with the Hoops, with an injury picked up before he joined keeping him out of action for several months.

And despite Tilio having been fully recovered since November, he just cannot find his way into Brendan Rodgers‘ first-team plans.

The 22-year-old has played just 28 minutes of Premiership football for Celtic this season and it’s clear he wants to rack up many more in the second half of the season, whether that be on loan or with the Hoops.

He’s already been linked with a return to Melbourne, with Sydney FC also credited with an interest in his signature.

Marco Tilio gets honest

Speaking to The West Australian ahead of his involvement in the Asian Cup with Australia, Tilio spoke about his underwhelming time with Celtic so far.

He said: “Of course from the outside it’s been tough. I obviously went to the club with an injury. But I’ve been back for four months now fully training, fully fit.

“I probably feel physically better than what I’ve ever been in my career. So I feel really good and I’m just raring to go, ready to play and hopefully this tournament’s a chance for me to do that.”

Tilio then went on to hint his immediate future may lie outside of Glasgow by issuing a plea for more game time.

He continued: “I think it’s only improved me as a player being in and around that every day. But overall, I’d like to get more game time and whatever that looks like, we’ll see what happens.”

During his substitute appearance against Hibs in December, we remember Tilio receiving a positive post-match reaction from fans who were delighted to finally see him get a decent run-out.

But that was clearly a false dawn because Rodgers hasn’t fielded him since and at 22, you can understand why Tilio would be angling for a six-month loan switch this month.

This doesn’t look good for Celtic. The £1.5m for Tilio has so far been wasted, which can also be said of Kwon (£1m), Odin Thiago Holm (£2.6m) and Gustaf Lagerbielke (£3m).

Sure, maybe it’s early days for some of those guys but the future for all of them with Celtic at the moment doesn’t look very bright.