Burns has made a couple of appearances from the bench in recent weeks, including an eight minute stint at the weekend as AEK triumphed 1-0.

Burns, controversially overlooked for the Olyroos Olympic squad last year, found opportunities hard to come by in the early months with AEK but his patience and determination is beginning to pay off.

He told the Sunday Mail: "The toughest time was when I first got here. I got injured and I was out for about a month.

"When I came back I was playing badly, and wasn't in good shape because I had missed pre-season. It was a step up and I was very tired after a long season with Adelaide and the Olympic camp."

The youngster refused to let the situation drag him down though and far from feeling sorry for himself, he merely put in even more work.

"I wasn't involved, I was sitting out every week, sometimes the coach would sit me out of a training session," he said. "These times are tough and all I did was work harder.

"The bad patch lasted a month, but confidence is the main part. You can't let anyone know you're low on confidence here because they'll smash you."