FORMER Love Island star Giorgio Russo has opened up about Lioness sister Alessia - and how she wasn't featured during the show.
In an exclusive conversation with talkSPORT, the ex islander - who is the brother of England Women's and Arsenal forward Alessia Russo - revealed how his sibling was omitted from the ITV2 edit.
The account manager from Maidstone explained that it wasn't down to him or his fellow islanders.
Host Adrian Durham quizzed: "You didn't say to anybody in the villa that your sister plays for England... you dropped a few hints but you didn't say clearly, 'Oh my sister's at the Women's Euros 2025 for England'."
Half Italian Gio answered: "So do you know what? It's funny that it wasn't [shown].
"I did and there was a lot of conversation, so I never actually brought it up.
"Someone figured it from my last name on day one - Tommy and Connor - but it never got shown on television which I mean is not too bad it was.
"There was times where we spoke about women's football quite a lot in the downtime and there was times where we spoke about all football in general.
"All the boys in there, we all had a real camaraderie about being knowledgeable about football and we'd play football games and what have you.
"But the topic of women's football and Alessia definitely came up a few times."
Alessia is the current holder of the FWA Women's Footballer of the Year award.
Before entering the villa, Gio revealed what his Champions League-winning sister thought about him signing up for Love Island.
Giorgio shared: "She’s really excited, she watches every year and reckons I can do well, so she’s excited to see how I get on."
He said: "My sister plays pro football, so being interested in sport — they don’t have to know football or understand it, but if they can show some sort of interest — because it is such a prominent thing in our family.
"It would be hard if they hated it. Other green flags are having a nice family — I’m sick of being the seventh wheel in my own family!"
Following his sister's Champion's League success with Arsenal, Gio posted: "Turns out being related to a Champions League winner doesn’t make me any better at football… but it does make me insanely proud.
"Congratulations @alessia, you make me prouder and prouder to be your big brother everyday."
The bombshell was part of one of the most savage Casa Amor recouplings the show’s seen in years.
Gio had been given the greenlight to bring back someone new from his friendship partner Billykiss, but the Italian decided to return alone.
The Maidstone lad is big into his fitness just like his Lioness sister.
On his social media he shares many fitness related posts with his followers, which include running, surfing and working out.
England have since won a dramatic penalty shoot-out against Sweden to reach the semi-finals of Women's Euro 2025.
Player of the Match Goalkeeper Hannah Hampton heroically pulled England through with a TAMPON in her nose.
They came back from losing 2-0 with 11 minutes left of normal time - and are set to face Italy next.
