Celtic winger Jota believes he has found extra gratitude and strength after wrestling with his “demons” during an 18-month lay-off.

The Portuguese player took another major step in his comeback when he returned to Celtic Park action as a half-time substitute in Sunday’s 7-1 demolition of Hearts.

The 27-year-old suffered a serious knee injury as Celtic clinched the title at Tannadice in April 2025.

He was rediscovering his form after a difficult time in between spells at Celtic. He had joined Al-Ittihad and soon found himself unable to play when the club went over their foreign players quota, before a frustrating stint at Rennes.

The recovery from injury was far from smooth, but he is determined to make the most of his fitness.

“In the end, it’s part of everyone’s life,” he said. “Everyone struggles, but certainly other people have worse problems.

“So I’m just grateful and privileged to be in such a wonderful sport and to have all of these experiences.

“I’ve met some demons and I’ve had some good talks with them. I think we developed a good relationship and we are all on the same table nowadays and we can laugh about everything that happened.

“If you don’t grow from a situation like this, it’s because you didn’t learn anything.

“I could step away, see different things from other perspectives and value some stuff that maybe I wasn’t valuing before.

“And now it’s good because I have a clear idea of what I want, what I am. I might have it before as well, but now it’s a bit clearer.

“The happiest thing in life for me is to play football. I couldn’t in the last year or so. So right now, every time I step on a training pitch or a football pitch, for me it’s everything. That’s why I’m enjoying so much and valuing this so much.”

The former Benfica player, who is not in Celtic’s Europa League squad, revealed his “passion for football” was his motivation.

“My love for football is immense,” he added. “Maybe someone else wouldn’t want to come back because of the struggle or some guys just don’t have that in themselves. That was my fuel to keep on working every day, to be healthy and fit, even if things weren’t going that way.

“This is my dream. It’s my passion. So there’s moments where you reflect, there’s moments where you’re down and you cannot see any light, but that doesn’t mean that you stop believing. You just need to find another way.

“But in the end, my aim was always to come back fit, whatever time I need to take, because I still have a long career in front of me and I’m still young.

“So there’s no rush, let’s do everything correctly and just trust the process.”

When asked if he felt he was making up for lost time, Jota said: “There’s no lost time because I grew a lot. It had to be what it had to be and I didn’t lose. I actually gained because I’m way stronger nowadays.”