Jota missed a staggering 75 games over the course of his Celtic injury.

Across over 500 days of absence, the Portuguese winger missed three managerial changes, three trophy lifts and everything in between. His return to the pitch against Motherwell on Sunday was an emotional moment.

He instantly looked at home once back on the pitch, and there was a palpable sense of anticipation when the ball was in his vicinity. In the end, there was no fairytale goal, but his overall play looked positive.

It’s hard to comprehend just how substantial a period Jota has missed during his time away, so we looked at the numbers to examine how the team have fared in his absence.

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Celtic’s record without Jota: 65% win rate

Celtic played 75 matches in Jota’s absence. They won 49, drew nine and lost 19. That constitutes a win-rate of just over 65%.

That’s across the managerial reigns of Brendan Rodgers, Martin O’Neill and Wilfried Nancy and covers domestic and European football.

The void left by the winger was initially filled by Daizen Maeda and Hyunjun Yang, before Sebastian Tounekti and Michel-Ange Balikwisha also arrived last summer. Neither of the latter pair could lace the boots of a prime Jota.

Discussing his return on Sky Sports after the game, Jota said: “Very good, long time no see. I was waiting on this for a long time and I finally could. I’m just happy to be back. I’ve been working hard to come well; the guys have been helping me as well.

“I’ve been expecting this for a long time, so it was just the normal nerves. But after I stepped on the pitch, everything goes well.

“If I can resume it, I would say like… imagine if someone takes away your child, and I just got my child back today? So that’s how I’ve been feeling the last year and something. I stopped counting. So yeah, I just want my child again. So I just want to keep it as long as I can.

“I’ve been working hard in training, I’m feeling very good nowadays. But obviously, there’s no amount of training that can give you what the game gives you. So I’m just ready to start to play more and more and help the team.”