McArthur keen to shrug off his
SCOTLAND midfielder James McArthur is raring to go again – just weeks after fearing his career might be in jeopardy.
The Crystal Palace player missed out on the World Cup opener against Malta after confessing to national manager Gordon Strachan he was in no condition to feature.
And, as he explained, that was the least of his concerns.
“I had words with the manager. I had a knee problem on the third day of pre-season and missed my full preseason and the first two games,” he said.
“I did come back to play 25 minutes against Blackpool but then I broke down with it again.
“So it was very frustrating because you want to come away with Scotland, be involved and play.
“It was a patella issue – every time I tried to push off there was a pain sensation shooting through my knee.
“I had no power at all in it. If I was in full running, it was fine. But every time I stopped and started it was like my leg was lagging behind.
“The physio did a great job in trying to build my quads up but then it wasn’t only my quads, everything else wasn’t activating properly, either.
“At one point I did start to worry more for my career as well.
“I’m naturally quite fit and it was not a nice feeling trying to get up to 100% during training when people are running by you
“You panic a wee bit more than you should when it’s a pain that’s not really common or one which they can’t explain to you why it’s still there.
“It was the fear of how long it would be, really, that was my big concern.
“If you get a hamstring injury, you know you’re maybe out four to six weeks. With this, no one knew how long it would be.
“I had a similar issue after doing my ankle last year and that might have been part of the problem.
“The specialist said: ‘You did nothing for three months, then you