Hearts' John Souttar reveals how top British surgeon cured his 'unique' ankle injury

Defender travelled to London for surgery which finally solved mystery problem
John Souttar is back from injury for HeartsJohn Souttar is back from injury for Hearts
John Souttar is back from injury for Hearts

“I thought I’d be out for two weeks. Five months later I’m just coming back.”

John Souttar’s rehabilitation from an ankle injury has been draining, costly and frustrating for both the player and Hearts. It will be a huge relief for all concerned when he returns to the Tynecastle Park pitch tomorrow.

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The Scottish Cup fourth-round tie with Airdrieonians will be Souttar’s first outing under manager Daniel Stendel. What appeared a routine ankle knock at Aberdeen back in August has cost the Scotland internationalist half a season. He has been sorely missed.

Scans initially could not identify the problem so Hearts sent Souttar to London to one of Britain’s top injury specialists, James Calder. It was he who succesfully operated on the 23-year-old’s ruptured Achilles two years ago. Calder performed exploratory surgery to pinpoint the exact problem with Souttar’s ankle in October, which involved re-attaching a sheath which connects ankle ligaments to the bone.

Tomorrow, the fruits of Calder’s endeavour and Souttar’s toil will be realised. “It’s been a long and frustrating time for me,” the player told the Evening News. “It was mad how it happened. I just went over on my ankle at Aberdeen after going up for a header. I thought I’d be out for two weeks. Five months later I’m just coming back. It’s been a hard few months but I’m just delighted to be back.

“It was a long time to get the diagnosis because it was such a unique injury and it wasn’t showing on scans. It was a really difficult one for the medical team to diagnose because if the top scans aren’t showing it, what are they meant to do?

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“Even the surgeon, who is the top surgeon in Britain, admitted it was a very unique problem. It was hard getting to the bottom of it. I went for an exploratory operation, and as soon as the surgeon went in he saw the problem and fixed it. That was me starting on the road to coming back.”

Those claiming Souttar is injury-prone because of two long-term absences in two years are ill-informed.

“It’s part of football, to be fair. My injuries haven’t been down to the way I live my life or anything like that, they have been serious injuries. It’s not a case of me needing to look at myself and ask what I have to do better. I’m not getting muscle strains because I’m not living my life correctly. The injuries have been big, serious ones.

“The Achilles was unique and this one was the same. There is nothing you can do. You just need to get on with it and fight back. Hopefully that’s me over the injuries I’ve had now and I can start on a clean slate, injury-free.

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“I don’t take too much notice of criticism. It’s up to me to get back and make a difference to the team. The whole way through, the medical staff have been brilliant with me. They have helped me a lot and sent me to the top specialist so I feel really good coming back.”

The feeling within Riccarton is not quite so positive. Hearts are bottom of the Premiership and Stendel is battling to revive them. The Scottish Cup is a distraction but Airdrie are a potential danger for a team short on confidence.

“What’s happened over the last six months is not ideal. It’s been frustrating for me, not being able to do anything to help,” said Souttar.

“The situation is what it is now. We need to get on with it. We have a new manager and we’ve trained with him solid for the last two weeks to try and get his ideas across. We need to start picking up results and quickly now.

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“It’s clear how he wants to play and we have worked on it for two weeks. I’ve only been back in training for two weeks so, for me, it’s just about trying to pick up how he wants things done. Every manager has his own ideas so we need to take them on as a group and do what is being asked.”

The pressing tactics and extremely high defensive line are slightly new for Souttar, who admitted he has not encountered it before. “Not to this extent. We did it with the old gaffer in the cup final last year, when we played quite high against Celtic. This is a bit different and I’m just doing my best to do what the new manager wants me to.”

Might it lead to another cup final? “That’s got to be the aim. We need to build some positivity in the place because there isn’t much just now. Even if we win tomorrow, it brings a little bit of positivity. Then, hopefully, we can try to get a cup run going again. I think it can only help us this season.

“The manager has come in and wants to do things differently and that’s fair enough. The boys have all bought into that but I think you can do as much team-bonding as you want – ultimately, you bond by winning games.

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“If you win matches, you become a closer team. I understand what the manager wants is to build a culture around here, but you get better and closer to people by winning. That’s what we have to start doing.”

There is also the small matter of Scotland’s Euro 2020 play-off in March. “One thing at a time,” Souttar laughed. He has enough on his plate for now.