DAVID FORRESTER knows only too well how it feels to sit on the sidelines while his fellow Scotland national team players are in the heat of battle. He was, after all, forced to do this at the team’s biggest tournament of the year, the Commonwealth Games, due to the most unfortunate of circumstances.
Forrester could legitimately lay claim to being the unluckiest athlete in Scotland this year. Having been selected to make his Commonwealth Games debut, at Gold Coast 2018, the goalkeeper was within touching distance of boarding the plane to Australia with the rest of Team Scotland. But just a few weeks before the squad departed, in Scotland’s final warm-up game, disaster struck for Forrester.
“I dived to my right to make a save and landed on my shoulder,” recalls the keeper.
“Straight away, I knew it was bad. I'd dislocated my shoulder. It was out its socket for about an hour before it was put back in and that was the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced.”
In the following days, Forrester was given the news that he had to undergo surgery, meaning his chances of making it onto the plane to Gold Coast were well and truly gone. It was, he admits, a crushing blow.
“It was so gutting,” he said.
“Everything had been geared towards the Commies for so long so I remember just thinking what do I do now?”
Forrester knew immediately though that he was going to make a return to the sport. His target was the Hockey Series Open in Lousada, which begins today and the Glaswegian, who plays his club hockey for French side CA Montrouge, will pull on a Scotland shirt for the first time since his injury. Having put so much into regaining fitness, being back on the international scene will, he admits, be a special feeling.
“It’s great to be back," he said.
"It was tough missing out on the Commies and just generally not being able to play - I’ve never experienced anything like that before. So it’s so nice to be back pulling on a Scotland top.
"Physically, I feel good because I was able to run and do a lot of fitness work before I was able to get back on the pitch. But it’s been getting back to match-fitness that’s been tougher. But I feel now that I’m pretty close to the level I was at before it happened.”
At number 22 in the world, Scotland are the highest-ranked team in the competition and over the next week, will face Russia, Belarus, Portugal, Turkey and Gibraltar. Head coach Derek Forsyth has selected a young squad and Forrester admits he is hugely excited about the health of men’s hockey in this country at the moment.
“This is a really young squad," he said.
"It's great to see and this is a really exciting time for men’s hockey in Scotland.
"The good thing is these young guys have added a lot to the team and they’re getting a good opportunity to play here with some of the more experienced guys not in the squad. Looking forward, I think there’s going to be a lot of competition for places, which is so healthy.”
The Scottish team have battled the odds in recent years to produce some impressive performances, including Gold Coast 2018 which was their most successful Commonwealth Games ever. This is despite receiving no funding whatsoever.
However, rather than feeling bitter abut their plight, Forrester insists it only motivates him and his teammates to perform better and produce results worthy of receiving financial support.
“The funding situation - we just have to deal with it as best we can," he said.
"We have to look at it as we created this problem by not getting results. So we need to go out there every time we play and prove that we deserve funding.
"If we get funding then great and if not, we need to just keep on striving for results. We have to look at it in a positive light rather than moaning about it because that’s not going to get us anywhere.”
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