You would think that after getting his move, former Celtic defender Christopher Jullien would be happy getting on with his career at his new club Montpellier.
The towering centre-back has made four appearances for the Ligue 1 side helping them to a respectable 10th place in the table.
But in a recent interview with French media, Jullien made a claim about his injury status that flies against what was being reported at the time.
Speaking to Ligue 1 France, Jullien said, “It was a difficult ordeal [his period out with injury].
“When you’re not playing for a year, you learn a lot about yourself, those around you and your family.
“As a result of such an injury, you can only become stronger mentally.
“But the thing that struck me the most was that when you’re abroad and you’re not playing, your name comes off the radar very quickly.
“A lot of people asked me what I was becoming and whether I was playing or not.
“It was especially a very long absence in the official match because I really came back from my injury in November 2021.
“The problem I had when I came back was that the team was doing very well and the coach didn’t need to fit me into the eleven.”
This is a strange claim as Jullien wasn’t fully declared fit until after the New Year.
In fact, in December 2021 Sky Sports reported that Celtic boss, Ange Postecoglou said that Jullien still wasn’t fit after a couple of ‘set backs’ ruled him out of first-team action.
It wasn’t until February 2022 that Ange declared the Frenchman ‘fully fit and available’ [The Sun] for selection for the first team but only made a 74 minute appearance for Celtic in a 4-0 win over Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup.
I suppose you can only take the interview in the context it was given as ‘coming back’ from injury is a lot different from actually being fit enough to play Ange’s intense style of football.
In an extensive interview where he hailed the Hoops boss and spoke about how he views the captains of Celtic [more to come on that later], Jullien gave a really good insight into that tough period of his Celtic career.