SHAUN MALONEY is philosophical about the hand life has dealt him.
A career that has sparkled in glimpses has too often been sidetracked by injuries that have hampered his progress and stunted his potential. He has learned, however, not to get too down about the setbacks and to remain upbeat about the future.
When fully fit he has the ability to influence any match. The 29-year-old demonstrated as much towards the end of last season when he belatedly got his chance with Wigan Athletic and made the most of it, scoring against Liverpool, Manchester United and Newcastle United as Roberto Martinez's side defied the odds to retain their place in the Barclays Premier League for another year.
That run of games and an injury-free summer have propelled Maloney into the Scotland squad for tomorrow's friendly against Australia. His 20 caps seem a meagre haul for such a talent but he has no regrets about the past. "Missing games through injury is just part of being a footballer, it's just not the nice part," he said.
"But I feel reasonably fortunate to have played the games I have. It would've been great to have played more games for Scotland and been involved in more squads but it doesn't keep me up at night. It's just been a bit of hard luck that I've missed out. I now look from the other side and think I've been fortunate to have played as much as I have."
A new Premier League season gets underway this weekend and Maloney is ready to be involved from the start. That has not always been the case. "It's the first time in three or four years I've gone into pre-season fit and managed to stay fit," he admitted. "Physically I'm ahead of where I've been at this stage of the season in a long time.
"I haven't really being doing anything different. It's just being able to train regularly for weeks and months. Touch wood it continues. We've been in a week or so earlier than most teams and I've been able to train consistently for that time. In the past there were different things that went wrong, then rehabs wouldn't work. It wasn't one thing that was causing me trouble for two or three years, it was numerous things. Hopefully it won't be an issue anymore."
Maloney feared for his international career the longer he remained on the sidelines last season but was always confident he would return to the Scotland fold once he was back playing regularly for his club. "There was always hope there. [Playing for Scotland] was definitely a motivating factor," he said. "If I got back playing regularly I would try and force a selection but the longer you're out you do worry you might not play again for your country. But I was always hopeful I'd get the run of games that was going to be needed to get me back in."
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