Six months is a long time in football, especially if your name is Tino Anjorin.

"My head was gone, it was the worst mental health stage I have experienced in my life," recalls the 23-year-old midfielder about a stage of his career that was ravaged by injuries.

Anjorin is now playing regularly at high-flying Empoli in Italy's Serie A after joining on a free transfer from Chelsea in the summer.

This is close to the level people expected for Anjorin, who was seen as one of the finest talents off Chelsea's youth production line at Cobham.

An early Chelsea debut in the EFL Cup at 17, a Premier League debut six months later and a Champions League start against Krasnodar - along with two further appearances in the FA Cup - highlighted what Frank Lampard and Thomas Tuchel thought of Anjorin's talents.

"I was making my debut in that situation where I just didn't have any problems and just loved playing my football," Anjorin tells BBC Sport.

"Lampard gave me the stage, lit a fire under me to become a Premier League footballer and those appearances attracted clubs like Lokomotiv Moscow and Huddersfield to sign me on loan.

"Thomas Tuchel showed me what you can do as a team that was on the ropes, getting hammered, but ended up winning the Champions League, no-one thought we would do that, not even in the dressing room."