Exclusive:'I watched every game': Scotland ace on calls with Steve Clarke, 668 days of hell and Hampden consistency

Cruelly sidelined by a long-term hamstring injury, Hickey made his first Brentford start in 22 months earlier this week in the Carabao Cup and will be in the first-team squad for Saturday’s English Premier League match against Sunderland. His journey back to the big time is all but complete.

After playing nearly an hour in the 2-0 cup win over Bournemouth on Tuesday, Hickey had double cause for celebration, with his long-awaited return to the Scotland squad for next month’s World Cup qualifiers against Belarus and Denmark confirmed less than 24 hours earlier. It has been a long, arduous road, but the full-back can finally focus on his bright future once again.

“It’s an unreal feeling getting called up again,” admits Hickey. “It’s what you work hard for. I’m delighted to be back in the squad. It feels good to be back playing. At times, it has been very tough. You always ask if you can play a little longer when you get those first 45 minutes. You want to play longer, but you have to be careful.

“Realising the situation you’ve been in requires patience and acceptance. I hadn’t been in that position before; it was new to me, but you just have to deal with it as best as you can. It’s part of the game, so it was about keeping my head up.

Hickey is refreshingly accepting of his gruelling injury hell, despite the fact that it wrecked his dreams of playing for Scotland at last summer’s Euro 2024 tournament in Germany. However, if you look close enough, there’s a beaming smile that he struggles to contain when discussing his return in an exclusive interview with The Scotsman.

And who can blame him? His plans for the new season no longer involve daily visits to the treatment room and a stringent rehab process. Simply preparing for a weekend game must have felt agonisingly out of reach for almost two years, let alone a return to the Scotland fold just weeks into his comeback.

‘The aim is simply to get back playing’

“Like anything, you’re going to have those lows,” continues Hickey. “If you don’t have those lows, you won’t have those feelings that come with the highs. Now it’s about getting back, getting minutes, staying fit. The manager [Keith Andrews] has brought me back in gradually; the aim is to simply get back and get playing.”

First emerging as a 16-year-old at Hearts, a £1.5 million move to Bologna in 2020 resulted in Hickey’s reputation booming. Making his international debut as a late substitute in a 1-1 friendly draw with Poland in November 2022, the former Tynecastle talent wasted no time cementing himself as one of the country’s rising stars. An £18m move to Brentford the following summer helped Hickey rapidly become a key figure in Clarke’s starting XI.

While Scott McTominay’s brace took the headlines on the night, he came of age in the memorable 2-0 qualifying victory over Spain in March 2023. Shutting out Mikel Oyarzabal and, latterly, Nico Williams, neither Spanish star was afforded an inch at Hampden. When qualification for the tournament was virtually sealed via a dramatic 2-1 win over Norway in Oslo three months later, his dreams of representing his country at a major tournament were being realised.

A mere 16 weeks later, though, disaster struck at Stamford Bridge on October 23 in a 2-0 win over Chelsea. His season came to a premature end and he was forced to accept defeat in his quest to be fit enough for Scotland’s European Championship campaign in Germany last summer. Forced to undergo surgery in August 2024 to fully repair his hamstring tendon, he missed the entirety of the last season in a crushing blow.

“Beating Spain under the lights at Hampden was special,” recalls Hickey. “We’ve shown before how good we can be in certain games, we just need to be more consistent. We can do that, we just need to bond as a team. I think we can go on and do good things together. I watched every game [at Euro 2024], willing the boys on, but it was hard. Losing that first game to Germany. It was a punch. But we can learn from that. Hopefully, we can improve and take those experiences forward.

“Steve Clarke has been really good. He’s called me and texted me a few times to see how I’m getting on. It isn’t just him, though, it is all the other coaches. But hearing from the gaffer does give you an extra boost when it comes to getting back. Also, my family is really good at keeping me grounded. I feel I’m grounded as a person, I don’t need anyone to keep me grounded. It’s who I am and how I’ve been brought up.

“I get it [the emotion of not feeling a footballer when you’re forced out for so long with injury], but it feels so good to be back, and to be back in training every day. Just being outside with the team. The feeling is unbeatable. You want to play football as much as you can, and every day you want to be back, every day is a push. But sometimes it just takes a little longer than you want. You have to be patient. Mentally, you need to accept it. It’s just about keeping on going and not giving up.

“My aim is simply to get as many caps as I can for my country. That’s all anyone wants, is to just play as much as you can for Scotland. Hopefully, I can gradually get back to where I was.”

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