Scotland boss Steve Clarke has been handed a massive boost after it emerged John McGinn could make his long-awaited comeback from injury next weekend.
McGinn, who has scored six goals in his last three international outings, has been sidelined since breaking his ankle against Southampton in December.
But the former Hibernian and St Mirren favourite is now back training with the Aston Villa first-team and on course for a return ahead of Scotland’s Euro 2020 play-off against Israel later this month.
Villa manager Dean Smith expects the 25-year-old’s recovery to progress quickly now he is back with his team-mates, and has revealed a run-out against Chelsea next Saturday is a possibility.
Smith said: “He’s nearer [a return], he’s trained with us. We’ve not had him in with contact as yet but he’s been involved in some possession sessions and some shape work as well.
“So, he’s certainly getting to where we want him to be.
“He’s had a CT scan to make sure there’s a full union of the fracture. But he feels really good, which is the important thing.
“He’ll be pushing me for Chelsea, that’s the way he is.
“I always said that once he gets on that training ground he’ll move quickly and he’s certainly progressing quickly now.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel