SMILES BETTER
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Lewis Macleod is finally back on track
IF only, somewhere among all the analytics, algorithms and mathematics that made his employers a trailblazing football club, there was a formula that could be used to cure the cruel fortune to befall Lewis Macleod. Then the Scottish midfielder wouldn’t be sitting at Brentford’s training ground trawling over bad memories of seemingly endless months of purgatory, interrupting himself as he mixes up the exact order of mishaps to pause and explain: ‘Sorry, I’m losing track of the years here…’
That’s not great for a 24-year-old, but it is understandable. Since being swiftly bustled out of Ibrox in December 2014 by a dubious Rangers board determined to trouser an undersold fee of £1million for one of Scotland’s brightest young stars, Macleod hasn’t savoured much daylight ahead. Until now.
‘The hardest thing for me to accept is what I feel I could have gained in the years I was injured,’ he admits. ‘For a footballer, that’s probably the most important years — 21, 22, 23. You can really put your mark in a team. Or on the game. Or progress so much.
‘For me, though, now is like starting my career again at 24. But in my head I’m still 21. Because the way I am now is what I should have been like when I started here. Listen, it’s all behind me. To say how I got through it, I don’t know. But I’m through the other end and it’s worth it. I’ve got to be excited for this season.’
Macleod has started that season in style for a Brentford side expected to challenge for promotion to the Premier League, Dean Smith’s team thrashing Rotherham and outplaying Stoke in a 1-1 draw. Around the west London club, who host Sheffield Wednesday today, there’s belief Macleod will soon play for Scotland on the back of such plans working out.
And this is an outfit that can certainly plan. Meticulously. Their famed recruitment model, which has picked up a host of multi-million pound players for a song — the trio of Andre Gray, Scott Hogan and James Tarkowski copped £25m alone — identified Macleod as another likely candidate.
He was touted by Kenny McDowall, then Rangers interim manager and with no say in a sale, as the most gifted young player he’d worked with since Aiden McGeady.
A month before Brentford homed in, Macleod was called up at the age of 20 by Gordon Strachan for the Euro 2016 qualifier against the Republic of Ireland and a friendly with England, despite a career spent outside the top flight with troubled Rangers.
Brentford must have been impressed, because they signed Macleod with an injury. Leaving his boyhood club — when in no rush to do so — for London could have been a daunting prospect at the best of times, but Macleod felt intrigued and excited by the challenge and fully anticipated being fit within eight weeks.
His desperation to make an impact for Mark Warburton’s team, however, led to a rather terrifying moment five months later. It was the first leg of a promotion play-off semi-final against Middlesbrough. Macleod found himself on the bench — and felt well out of his depth.
He recalls: ‘One of our midfielders went down injured within five minutes. I’m sitting there thinking: “**** , if I get on here I’ve got no chance”. I’m struggling. I’m not right. This isn’t how I want to make my debut.
‘I was excited to be there after five months out but, at the back of my mind, I was thinking if I go on I’ll either be good and just forget about it. Or it could be a nightmare. He never came off, so I never came on.
‘I’d trained lots but, at the same time, wasn’t 100 per cent. Just didn’t feel great. Looking back, I would probably have been better chilling out a little, not doing much. But I was new, trying to impress. The
manager wanted me fit, so I tried to get through it and back as soon as I could. Ultimately it wasn’t the right idea because I was injured for a lot longer than I expected.’
Macleod went on to sample only eight first-team minutes in 19 months, plagued by the hamstring issues that dogged him from the day he signed. During one comeback attempt, he suffered another setback by stepping into a dip in the grass at the training ground and damaged the hamstring again.
‘At times with the hamstring, I really began to wonder: “What’s going on here?”,’ he says.
That wasn’t even the lowest ebb. The second lengthy spell out was only 13 appearances into a revival, in October 2016, when suffering anterior cruciate knee-ligament damage against QPR. Another 14 months out.
‘I don’t think you actually think about what’s happened until a month down the line, when you’re sitting looking at your cast with nothing to
do,’ he explains. ‘I’d worked to get back fit from the hamstring and finally I’d reached a good place. When that happens? The first few months of that were the toughest.
‘Anyone who’s been through a long injury, never mind two or three, will know how hard it is. Team-mates, family, people at the club have been great because I’ve had to be patient. When I first came down it wasn’t so bad because, while in Glasgow, I’d lived by myself for a few years anyway.
‘And, initially, my cousins and mum and dad came down every few weeks. However, being away from home is definitely tougher when you’re not playing. You’ve not really anything you can look to that’s exciting.’
Watching Hogan’s recovery from two serious injuries gave Macleod hope and a grasp of the graft and courage required. The expertise of head of medical, Neil Greig, guided his physical recovery. Then there was the edge gained from Brentford’s association with leading sports psychologist Michael Caulfield. ‘He was a great guy to have around,’ says Macleod. ‘Someone to take your anger out on a little bit. He’d listen to you, once a week or so. Not necessarily taking you into a room and questioning you. But, yes, he’d help with the mental side. ‘He’d say all the right things, text you now and again.’ Amid the devastation, a chink of light offered right at the top of the club. Two months after he lay stricken at Loftus Road, Brentford backed their boy with a one-year contract extension until 2019. Macleod insists: ‘I’m sure other clubs would have looked and wondered: “What’s he going to be like when he gets back?” There’s that uncertainty. I could
The hardest thing for me to accept was losing those important years — 21, 22 and 23
have returned not the same player. I think that’s one of your worst fears.
‘Doing rehab, you don’t feel great. As much as you need to keep doing the stuff you’re doing, the knee never feels 100 per cent. It’s not until you actually start playing reserve games do you get any confidence. So for them to put their faith in me with that gesture gave me an extra wee confidence boost.’
Macleod felt his way along with six starts and five substitute appearances last term, disappointed not to have exacted a greater influence on a promotion push that stalled three places outside the play-offs.
So far this year a proper preseason, a burst of joy at an openingday goal and much promise in performances as he seeks to catch up with ex-Scotland Under-21 pals John McGinn and Barrie McKay.
‘It’s just trying to get as many minutes as I can, so if I can play the majority of the games I’ll be more than happy,’ he says.
‘It can be difficult to accept small steps because I look at other boys like John, wee Baz.
‘They’ve played consistently for the last four years. I’ve been sitting watching them. Now that you’re back fit, you just want everything to come at once. I feel good and just desperate to make up for lost time.’