Matt O’Riley has hobbled off the pitch in serious discomfort only nine minutes into his Brighton debut.

The Danish international midfielder joined the English Premier League club for a Scottish-record £30million on Monday. 

And he was included in the starting XI as Brighton took on Crawley Town this evening.

It was meant to be the start of an exciting new chapter down south yet the former Celtic star could be seen looking distraught and shaking his head while being helped off the pitch by medical staff at the American Express Stadium. 

Before the Carabao Cup match O’Riley was asked by Sky Sports if he had a message for the Celtic fans after departing the club he called home for two-and-half-years.

"I don't know where to start,” the 23-year-old stated.

“I will give a quick one now and do another one formally later. 

"Thank you very much for everything. They made me feel welcome right from day one. It was quite tough to say goodbye and things happened really, really quickly as well so it was bit annoying I couldn't get to say a real proper goodbye.

“I will take some time after to do a proper slow message to really thank them."

Addressing the reckless challenge from Jay Williams, which evidently caught Brighton’s new signing on the left ankle, head coach Fabian Hurzeler raged at the fact the opposition player avoided a card as he explained how O’Riley will now require a medical scan.

He said: “I think after this foul the players could tackle like they want, because there was no yellow card.

“For me it was a clear red card. You can’t tackle like this. You can be hard, you can be ruthless, but you can’t take the risk to injure a player. He (Williams) was much too late.

“I hope Matt is not as badly injured as it looks. We have to wait for the scan on his ankle.

“He said to me he could not put any weight on his ankle, so it’s not nice.”

(Image: Sky Sports)