Australian international Trent Sainsbury admitted his loan move to Inter Milan from Jiangsu Suning came as a shock.
The 25-year-old defender moved to Serie A after the Italian giants sent their centre-back Andrea Ranocchia to Hull City on loan for the rest of the season.
Having joined the Chinese Super League side just over a year ago from Netherlands outfit PEC Zwolle, Sainsbury said that he did not expect to return to Europe so soon.
“I didn’t expect to go back so quickly and I must admit to go to a club of this stature is a bit of a shock,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“I was thinking maybe I would go back to Holland and prove myself in European football again but this massive opportunity has come my way, one that I certainly couldn’t turn down.
“It’s the chance to play with and against some of the best players in Europe, in fact some of the best in the world. To go and pit myself against them will be a good fight, it’s a short time period, so that allows me to give everything I possibly have until the end of the loan period and see where it takes me.”
Sainsbury, who had four-year stint in A-League with Central Coast Mariners in his early career and also also won the 2015 Asian Cup with Australia added: “I’m going to have to adjust very quickly, no doubt – European football is dog-eat-dog.”
“But I don’t want to go there just to make up the numbers or for the experience, I want to go all out to play.”