CHARLIE Mulgrew sat alone in the dressing room at Celtic Park with tears welling in his eyes as the realisation that he had suffered a recurrence of injury which had kept him out for over two months hit home.

For a fleeting moment, the Scotland internationalist, who had spent two lengthy spells on the sidelines the season before, even feared it may actually threaten to end his career.

But what was the response on social media website Instagram? The distraught player was bombarded with scathing messages from irate supporters accusing him of letting the team down in the game against Ajax.

For Mulgrew, who had walked off the park with a few minutes remaining in a Europa League game which the Scottish champions ended up losing 2-1, it was a harsh reminder about the realities of life as a professional footballer in the modern age.

Now back fit and playing for both Celtic and Scotland as well as being on the verge of agreeing a new contract, the 30-year-old confirmed he now shuts himself off from the abuse which can be directed at him on cyberspace as a result of the experience.

“That’s life now isn’t it?” he said. “Years ago there was none of that. I took myself away from most social media apart from Instagram. You don’t get much hassle on there, but now and again you do.

“That time I got a lot and it’s a part of life you need to deal with now. I didn’t read it all. I read a couple, but what’s the point of sitting going through them and torturing yourself. I sat and read a couple, got the gist of it and shut it down.

“You have to live in a bubble. You can’t worry too much about it. It’s part of life that people feel they have to have their opinion.

"A lot of them don’t leave their house and just sit on their computer all day typing stuff on a keyboard. You need to realise it’s a minority. It’s not always people living in the real world.”

Mulgrew added: “I was devastated. I was close to tears in the changing room afterwards. I remember sitting with my eyes filling up and I’m thinking, ‘I can’t believe this has gone again. It was the last thing I needed. And then it all goes off.’

“You’ve only a few months left on contract, team have lost, no idea when you will play again? I just built it up gradually for two or three months. Each day I was building a bit more on. One more run there, an extra stretch here. It was slow.

“I had 20 minutes in me for that game and when I look back it was the 21st or 22nd minute it happened. The margins are so small at that level. I couldn’t believe I had done it."

Asked if he had considered it may end his playing days, Mulgrew replied: “You don’t want to think like that, but it does run through your mind a wee bit. You quickly shift it to being positive and thinking about getting back again, because if you dwell on the other stuff too much you will get yourself really down.

“You are already down. You are devastated. But you need to quickly change your mindset on to thinking ‘right, this is what I need to do to get back and get it right.”

Mulgrew spent another two months fighting his way back to full fitness and then played regularly and consistently well for Ronny Deila’s team during the final matches of the 2015/16 campaign.

He is the only Celtic player to be named in the Scotland squad for their end-of-season friendlies with Italy and France – manager Gordon Strachan felt the matches against the Euro 2016 finalists would benefit him.

He played at left back in the 1-0 loss to the Azzurri in the Ta’ Qali Stadium here in Malta on Sunday evening and his hoping to be involved in the meeting with France in the Stade Saint-Symphorien in Metz on Saturday night.

The performance against Italy was far from impressive, but Mulgrew believes it, and their next outing this weekend, will be invaluable ahead of the start of their Russia 2018 qualifying campaign, and games against England, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania and Malta next season.

“We stuck at it on Sunday and we can take that from the game,” he said. “We have to move on. The England games in the World Cup qualifiers will be totally different. These games are good for us and the France match will be another good test.

“The more tests you get like that the more you get used to playing against world class opposition. The qualifiers will be different. Friendlies can be a bit downbeat, when it’s competitive and you’re playing for points it’s different.

“But France will be looking to put on a show in front of their own fans. You can rhyme off 10 of their players right away. It will be another difficult and we’ll need to step up and challenge.

“It’s another cap for Scotland and there’s a lot of good players competing for places so there is a motivation for us as well to prove we can play against these players.”

Mulgrew added: “There have been summer friendlies in the past that have ended up a lot worse than 1-0 against lesser opposition so you’ve got to be on your guard.

“The game I’m thinking of is the USA, but it’s definitely a different approach and mindset going into these games. You could see on Sunday night if you don’t turn up and give 100 per cent against the likes of Italy then it could have been a whole lot worse.

“We’re training and working hard and treating this like it is a competitive match. Everyone is on their toes and wants to do well.”