SNODGRASS’ DARK DAYS ARE BEHIND HIM

SCOTTISH football may have good cause to reproach itself right now but that’s not to say good news stories are as rare as a pig in flight. One year and 93 days on from horrifically dislocating his knee cap in Hull City’s 2014-15 season opener at Loftus Road, Robert Snodgrass is very much a man on the comeback trail. A runout in an Under-21 match last week should be one of the final staging posts on what has been an epic journey to recovery. For the 28-year-old Glaswegian, as well as Steve Bruce and Gordon Strachan — his respective club and international managers — the moment normal service is resumed will come not a moment too soon. A modest, intelligent soul from a humble background, Snodgrass (pictured) has continually sought to put the mental and physical trials of the last year in perspective. Those who know him best, though, and who have witnessed at first-hand the darkest moments of the past 15 months, can testify to how challenging a time it has been. ‘Of course there were times when we had to lift his spirits,’ said Hull and Scotland team-mate Andrew Robertson. ‘I remember seeing him a week after his first operation, when he was all drugged up and he really didn’t know what was going on. ‘When you’ve witnessed that — and another time when he was sitting in our physio’s room with a hoodie over his head because the lights were too bright for him to bear — then to see him now, out running on the training ground, is a boost for us all. ‘It’s been a long journey for him and I’m sure there will have been many times when he thought he was never going to get to this stage and he would have been worrying about that. ‘That’s why it’s such a delight for everyone at the club to have him back working with the rest of us again. ‘Even when he couldn’t play, though, he was still a character in the changing room. When some players have had a bad injury, they’re not normally like that. Snods is unique in that respect.’ Such a prolonged period of absence throws up so many imponderables. Hull, who had only just shelled out £6million to Norwich for

the player, lost their Premier League status last year by just three points. Might matters have been different had Snodgrass been available? And what of Scotland? The man whose goal in Zagreb in 2013 sparked a minor upsurge in fortunes missed the failed Euro 2016 campaign in its entirety. His intervention here and there might well have changed our fortunes. We’ll never know, of course. Now, however, Robertson simply feels reassured that his chances of winning games at both club and international level will be significantly better. ‘There’s absolutely no doubt whatsoever that both Hull and Scotland missed him massively last season,’ added Robertson. ‘He’s a top-quality player and I’m convinced that, once he’s back in the squads for club and country, he’ll definitely improve both of them. ‘We’re top of the Championship as it stands but adding him to the mix means even more competition for places. ‘He’s bedding himself in and he had his first game last week. I saw the video of him coming out of the tunnel and you couldn’t have removed the smile off his face — and that’s just Under-21s football. ‘But when you get to know Snods personally, you soon realise that he’s just a guy who wants to be out there and involved in everything.’