Scotland star Lewis Morgan was given just 25 per cent chance of full recovery

SCOTLAND forward Lewis Morgan used the fear of potentially career-ending surgery to motivate his comeback.

The New York Red Bulls attacker was only given an 80 per cent of returning to football at all post-surgery, as well as a 20 to 25 per cent chance of making it back to his top level.

2

The 27-year-old harnessed his anxiety to fuel his recovery, with Morgan now determined to make the most of his Euro 2024 chance after his late call-up from Steve Clarke.

Morgan said: “I started to pick up a lot of hip strains, so we knew surgery was in the background.

“But I wanted to give everything I could to avoid it.

“I re-injured myself three, four, maybe five times, and each time the severity got worse and it culminated in a really bad tear – which is supposedly unheard of.

“I had the surgery, which involved almost a complete reshaping of my hip. It was quite intense.

“As soon as the surgery was over, all the pain that I’d had was almost gone and then it was just about recovering and getting back.

“They were giving me around an 80 to 85% chance of returning to play full stop, then returning to performance level was maybe 20 or 25%.

“That fear drove me on in the rehab process to make sure I didn’t skip any corners to give myself the best chance.

“It’s quite surreal to think, ‘oh now I’m back playing and I’m performing at a good level’.”

In what was a whirlwind reintroduction to the international scene, Morgan picked up his third cap against Finland last Friday six long years after his last.

The former Hoops forward would love to pick up a fourth this Friday night in Scotland’s huge opening game with Germany, insisting the Tartan Army can dare to dream of a massive result.

Morgan told the BBC Scottish Football Podcast: “Stranger things have happened in football.

“We’ve got a really, really talented squad here. A good group of players playing at the highest level in world football.

“There’s no reason why we can’t go there and get something.

“But we can only do that if we give the best version of ourselves and stick to the game plan.”

New YouTube channel

Subscribe to our new Scottish Sun Sport YouTube channel for all the latest football news, views and videos as Scotland heads to the Euros.

Watch our daily GoBallistic podcast with Roger Hannah and our SunSport team in Germany as the Tartan Army marches on Munich in search of glory.

Subscribe now and don’t miss a moment. Herr we go!

Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page