"I owe the club and fans": Aiden McGeady on injury hell, nearly quitting, and what he offers Hibs

The last thing Aiden McGeady wanted was to cheat the fans. The 36-year-old summer signing could not fail to pick up on some of the negativity after spending his first six months as a Hibs player on the treatment table.

It was the mental anguish more than the physical injury that hurt the most. In fact, he was so frustrated by his latest setback that he seriously considered packing it in and calling it a day. That would have been a real shame.

His performance against Motherwell on Sunday in his first league start since joining from Sunderland last summer showed just how much he has to offer Hibs. Whatsmore, McGeady isn’t ready to swan off into the sunset yet. He is back in Scottish football after a 12-year absence, determined to enjoy himself and he still loves playing.

He might not be quite the same dazzling and dashing winger who came through the ranks at Celtic, but the former Ireland international feels ready to make up for lost time at Hibs and is confident his return to full fitness can help take the team forward after their recent slump.

“It’s not that I feel I’ve got something to prove, it’s just that I’ve not played for so long I feel I probably owe the club and the fans something,” he explained.

“I feel people might think I've just come up here to see out the last couple of years of my career or whatever. That’s not the case at all. I still love playing football and I still feel I have something to offer.”

McGeady did feature in all four of Hibs’ ill-fated Premier Sports Cup group ties only to suffer a recurrence of the knee ligament injury which had kept him out for most of last season when he was in the final year of his Sunderland contract. He thought the medial tear from the previous season had healed properly. He discovered in a friendly against Norwich City at Easter Road that it hadn’t.

“The injury really set me back a lot,” he reflects. “There’s nothing worse than being injured. The last four or five months have been some of the worst of my career.

Aiden McGeady feels he owes the fans and wants to make up for lost time after making his first league start since joining in the summer. Picture: Craig Foy / SNS

“I actually contemplated just packing it in completely. I thought, ‘I’m never going to get over this’ but it’s all been worth it when you have days like Sunday, when you’re out there enjoying playing football again and showing people that you can make a difference.

“It was just about getting over the pain I was having in my knee. We took it really cautiously this time. At Sunderland I came back too soon and had two or three setbacks.

“This time, though, I took it really cautiously. There must have been people thinking: ‘He’s come here for a jolly up or to top up his pension’, whatever they want to say. I absolutely wasn’t. I still love playing football and I want to do well for this club.”

McGeady looked dangerous against Motherwell, rolling back the years on the left wing to set up Kevin Nisbet’s first goal after 15 minutes and lasting 87 minutes before being taken off.

McGeady believes he can be an influential player for Hibs in the second half of the season. Picture: Mark Scates / SNS

“That was the manager’s decision,” McGeady points out. “He decided to make changes, although I would have been completely fine playing the full game. That’s what I need. I need more games and more minutes, not half an hour against Celtic when we are 4-0 down.

“That’s probably not conducive to what I need, but games like the other day are really what our season is based on, not games against Celtic or Rangers.”

The next step for him is a run of games to get fully up to mach sharpness. That might take a few weeks, but McGeady has already shown enough to suggest that he will complement Kevin Nisbet nicely in attack and add the kind of quality in the final third that the manager has been crying out for. Nisbet is already firing on all cylinders and the return of Kyle Magennis too suddenly gives this Hibs team far more potency and, as Lee Johnson has been at pains to emphasise, far more game intelligence.

McGeady lasted 87 minutes against Motherwell and made an impact by setting up the first goal. Picture: Mark Scates / SNS

McGeady agrees. “I don’t want to speak about what’s gone on before here, but if you put in myself, Nisbet and Kyle Magennis… the three of us have each effectively been out for a year: Martin Boyle as well. It doesn’t help the manager when you have three or more focal points of your team out injured: you’re almost picking your team with your hands tied behind your back.

“I can only imagine he feels better having us three fit again and I'm just glad to get back on the pitch again. We had been on such a bad run but it just shows how tight the league is – it’s a bit like the Championship down south: you win three or four games in a row and you shoot up the table.

“We just need to put a bit of a run together. We’ve got Dundee United and then Hearts in the Scottish Cup. Obviously, recent results haven’t been good enough but, hopefully, Sunday will prove to be a turning point.”

McGeady feels the players need to take ownership and drive things forward after the recent poor run of results. He worked closely with Johnson at Sunderland and knows what is expected. He can help ensure everyone is fully aware of the expectations now that he can influence things and communicate with others directly on the pitch.

“It’s about the buy-in from the players,” Mcgeady explains. “The manager is the one who loses his job at the end of the day but the players need to take responsibility. The manager picks the team and the formation, but it’s hard when it’s down to individual errors, like it was when we went 2-0 down at Tynecastle.

“The manager gets the blame, but that’s the industry we are in. I think if he gets his best players and formation, with the game intelligence and game management, I don’t think we will be too far away.”