K in business after s of tears and fears
might not understand that. But to us playing football is everything and when you are not playing sometimes at least you are healthy.
“You sit there watching your team-mates doing well, winning games and trophies and you know you are not part of it and can’t do anything about it. You need to be mentally strong.
‘You need to focus on your rehab and get your session done. ‘It’s been a really tough time.”
Bitton was of course in the best of hands in terms of the knee injury. But what happens in the head is not so easily treated.
The 27-year-old is a hard man to read but he didn’t hold back when describing how difficult it was to cope with being out and with months still to go of his rehabilitation.
He admitted: “Physically it was tough but mentally it was an even bigger challenge. It’s the first long-term injury and you don’t know what to expect.
“You don’t know what challenges lie in wait and there are so many mental things going on behind the scenes.
“You just try to stay focussed and stay calm and surround yourself with good people who always support you whatever it takes.”
Did he really think his career was over?
“Well .... you always have these thoughts when you get a long-term injury. You don’t know what to expect, you don’t know what you are getting into. But I had good medical staff at Celtic who supported me and guided me.
“The surgeon was good. We had a few meetings with him through the rehab and he was always very positive.
“Put the money aside and this is what we love to do most. You can ask any athlete you like. When you finish your career it’s not the same. It doesn’t matter how much money you earn or how many big houses you have or how good a life you live.
“When you can’t do something you like it’s just depressing and it makes you think the worst. A lot of people from the outside look and think, ‘ah they earn good money, they have a great life...’
“Sometimes that.”
Bitton believes he will return a better player and he is also a better person after a year which forced him to do a bit of thinking about life itself. it’s not like
It will be interesting to see how this manifests itself on the park but what’s clear is that his outlook on the world has been changed.
Bitton said: “Of course. Before I got this injury and felt like this I would see people hurt themselves or get sick and injured and if I’m honest I didn’t think too much about it. You feel sorry for them of course. But you don’t really feel it.
“It’s only when you get something like this yourself that you see that these other people are warriors.
“Around Christmas time we as players always go to hospital to see the children lying there fighting for their life. I appreciate now that these kids are the strongest people in the world.
“After this injury I start to appreciate the small things in life now.
“I see these boys and girls there unwell and I appreciate life itself. In one second you can lose everything and it won’t come back.
“These guys, for me, are an inspiration. They should be an inspiration to everyone.”
Bitton has a two-year-old daughter Alice and his son Tom is only a few months old. And now they will get the chance to see their old man kick a football.
He said: “Getting back on the pitch will be emotional for me, it will be emotional for my family.
“They have been part of it with me and suffered a lot in the first few months.
‘I appreciate all their help and they deserve it. My two-year-old daughter Emma is too young to understand it all now.
‘But she is starting to realise. She has watched a few Celtic games this season and I have a neighbour called Tom Rogic so she watches him on television and she’s like ‘goal, goal...’
“She will be excited to see her daddy playing on the pitch and I want to make her proud… I better go now because I’m going to cry again.” right-back, perhaps Omar Elabdellaoui, a Norwegian who plays for Greek outfit Olympiacos, could follow that trio to Glasgow.
But while Rodgers was given a record £9m to sign Odsonne Edouard last summer, there will be no record spending by Celtic during this month.
Asked whether a big-money transfer was a possibility, Rodgers said: “I don’t think that’s how Celtic works. The model of the club is value and maximising that value and talent and development and see it grow at the club. The young players that have come in fit that model.
“My job was to develop that, increase that talent within and hopefully they can come in and do a great job for Celtic. Whether they are loan signings or a permanent signing.”
Rodgers is hoping to make at least one more addition to his squad and perhaps more if the right player becomes available.
The perception is that Rangers have strengthened but the Celtic manager is more concerned about his own players and how they can play better – and score more goals – when the league starts up again.
Rodgers said: “Ideally we’d make more signings. I think there are still positions where we would like to get folk in.
But we needed to improve the squad, there was no doubt about that.
“The second part of the season is about bringing in more of a offensive threat and giving us more options.”