Even if you don’t watch Love Island, you may have heard of it or seen it splashed across TV adverts and magazines.

If you’ve kept up to date, you would have seen Margate football star Mike Thalassitis enter the Mediterranean villa and cause quite a stir.

The 24-year-old plays for Margate as a striker – but hadn’t let manager Steve Watt know before jetting off to feature on the ITV2 programme.

Steve said: “I’m disappointed he didn’t let me know but I understand the situation and how it came about.

“His dad rang me up the other day to apologise on his behalf and I understand they discussed whether he should call me but he must have just forgotten.”

“Even if he had rung me I would have told him to do it.

“It is a good opportunity for him and hopefully it will open up things for him when he’s back and he’ll continue to be a good footballer.”

Thalassitis arrived at Hartsdown Park from St Albans last summer and had two spells with Margate last season, leaving for Hemel Hempstead in late October before returning in March after a stint at Welling.

Now Mike is on the show, Steve has had a look to see what he’s up to.

“I’ve never watched the show before but I’ve watched the last couple of episodes since Mike’s been on it.”

Mike joined the Love Island cast on Thursday, 10 days after the start of the series on Monday, June 5.

But Margate supporters might want to keep their fingers crossed for Mike’s rivals in romance to get one over on him in the villa, because the longer he lasts on the show, the more of the pre-season he will miss.

Margate begin their preparations for the new season with a trip to Deal on Saturday, July 8, and have games at Ashford, Faversham, Concord and Dover before the show’s scheduled finale at the end of July.