JOHN SOUTTAR believes the ankle ligament damage that brought his remarkable rise to a shuddering halt for three testing months may well end up being the best thing that has ever happened to him.
The 18-year-old centre-back was injured during Dundee United's pre-season tour of the Netherlands in July and brought face to face with the darker side of life as a professional athlete following a year in which his star had burned with increasing luminosity.
Souttar used his time on the sidelines well, though. He learned the valuable lesson that careers cannot always take an upward trajectory. He listened to the Tannadice club's physiotherapist, Jeff Clarke, a well-travelled former player, and came to understand his view that handling such adversity would make him a more complete professional.
As much as anything, witnessing his friend and club mate Jordan Moore make a full recovery from skin cancer gave him the necessary perspective to overcome a comparatively minor complaint.
Souttar made his third appearance since returning to the first-team squad when replacing the suspended Callum Morris at Fir Park. He went on to score the goal that cancelled out Henrik Ojamaa's early opener and invited Keith Watson to produce a dramatic, late winner.
"Looking back, the injury may have been a good thing," he said. "Jeff and the other physios said it would benefit me in the long run and I looked at Jeff when I scored because he was massive for me when I was out. He always said that I would come back stronger. You never think that at the time. You just moan about constantly being on spin bikes, but it's great to get back and score. Another thing that helped me during the injury was Jordan. He went through cancer, so an injury was nothing compared to that."
The centre-back, for all his weekend heroics, has had a largely miserable campaign while watching his old flatmates, Andy Robertson and Ryan Gauld, go on to bigger and better things. Robertson's Boys' Own story is charging along with the same breakneck pace he shows on the left flank with Hull City and Scotland, while Gauld is quietly learning his trade at B-team level on a long and potentially very lucrative contract with Sporting Lisbon in Portugal.
Souttar, of course, could have left Tannadice before either of them. United agreed a £600,000 fee with Sunderland in October 2013, but the player opted to remain on Tayside after an exploratory visit south.
"I'm delighted for my two best pals getting moves and doing brilliantly," Souttar said. "I'm not jealous or anything. It's great. Andy has one of the best attitudes and is a great example. When I got the chance to move, Sunderland were in a strange situation.
"They didn't have a manager and my gaffer always assured me he wanted me to stay and develop under him. We trust each other and it was a good decision."
Souttar's 66th-minute header from a Stuart Armstrong corner was the least United deserved after overcoming an unimpressive start and laying siege to the Motherwell goal. Over the course of the 90 minutes, they saw players lose their nerve when one-on-one with the home goalkeeper, Dan Twardzik, on six separate occasions.
When Keith Watson, only drafted into the team when Jaroslaw Fojut pulled out after the warm-up, having failed to recover from a sickness bug, nodded home a Connor Townsend cross with eight minutes to go, however, it was impossible not to feel that justice had been done.
Exiting the cup was quite clearly painful for Motherwell. According to their caretaker manager Kenny Black the defeat led to some strong words involving his captain, Keith Lasley, and "two or three others".
"We're probably as down as we've been," said Ojamaa. "However, we cannot lose the unity that's always been at this club. We can't really start pointing fingers or arguing with one another."
What Motherwell need more than anything, though, is a solution to the painful saga surrounding the ownership of the club. The fan-driven Well Society looks like a busted flush. Details of a South American consortium remain sketchy.
Black has no idea if he will be in charge for Saturday's visit of Celtic, players coming to the end of their contracts can talk to interested parties in a month's time and the whole place is beginning to drift like a rudderless ship. Motherwell's finances are in a dire state and John Boyle must surely be close to giving up on it all and selling his majority shareholding to the highest bidder.
"I think everyone handles it differently," said Ojamaa. "I'm only on loan until January and I don't know what's going to happen. I like being here, but it's a decision for the people at the club and the people at Legia Warsaw."
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