Rangers star Thelo Aasgaard insists he's shrugged off criticism of his surprise World Cup call-up for Norway, after admitting his first Ibrox season was "up and down."
The midfielder was named for Norway's World Cup squad despite missing out on a call-up for the March friendlies.
But his call-up was met with plenty of criticism in his homeland, and when he posted a message of his pride at being included in the squad on social media, he was hit with a barrage of negative comments.
However, the 24-year-old, who made 48 appearances for Rangers this season, insisted he ignored all the criticism and is only concentrating on playing for Norway this summer. He said: "I don't read the comments. I only know about it now because it has been pointed out to me.
"It comes when you play for such a big club as Rangers. It's normal. I try to talk to good people like Norway manager Stale Solbakken and Danny Rohl. They only have good things to say to me, I focus on that.
"The season was a bit up and down with Rangers, but I think I played well for Norway. I'm very happy to be here with the squad. I had to be strong in my head for some periods, but there were many good matches too.
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"I can't wait for the World Cup. I was with the whole family when I saw the video that announced the squad."
But Norwegian TV pundit, former Brann and Viking Stavanger star Kristoffer Lokberg, reckons the online criticism of Aasgaard was a disgrace.
He said: "I read all the comments, and some of them are reprehensible. If you go in and read those comments, you start to wonder who all these people are. How can you say that about another person?
"Football players are one thing, but there are many young people who can be affected for life by something like this. So we can only hope for Thelo that he brushes it off and knows that this is, unfortunately, just part of the game.
"That's how football is, unfortunately. Thelo is an incredibly good football player and is in the Norwegian World Cup squad on merit."
