Barrie McKay opens up on Hearts injury agony as winger jokes Google told him to AMPUTATE leg

The winger is back from ankle and knee problems and raring to go ahead of Saturday's trip to face Aberdeen.

Barrie McKay feared his season was over when he broke down with an unusual knee ligament problem just a week after returning from ankle surgery.

The Hearts ace had never heard of a posterior ligament injury and jokes that an ill-advised internet search even suggested he was facing an AMPUTATION after being struck down in the Conference League play-off defeat to PAOK. But after finally returning to action this week the Tynecastle wing king is eager to ensure it’s opposition defenders left without a leg to stand on as he bids to make up for lost time.

McKay missed the entire pre-season after going under the knife on his ankle in the summer. He then endured another three months on the sidelines with the PCL injury in a campaign that appeared to be cursed. The 28-year-old former Rangers kid returned again as a second half sub against his old side on Wednesday though. And he’s eyeing more minutes in this afternoon’s clash with Aberdeen at Pittodrie.

He said: “I did my PCL. Usually when you do it, it’s a contact injury. But I ran in a straight line, the specialist had never seen that before. When I pulled up I think everybody thought: hamstring. Lawrence Shankland asked if I had done my hamstring. I said no, it was my knee.

“It’s weird how you know your own body. I just had a feeling. When the scan came back it said my knee. I’d never heard of that injury before and probably the worst thing you can do is go home and Google it and it tells you your leg is about to get amputated!

“You don’t really hear of PCL injuries in football, it’s more ACLs, MCLs. I remember getting the phone call from the physio and my heart just sunk a little bit.

“I had been back a week and played three games. I was fully fit and in squads for a week. That was the hardest thing to deal with. You know about hamstrings and take it from there.

“But because of the unknown I didn’t know if my season was done or I would be back in a certain amount of time. I had a brace on 24/7 for eight weeks and I just couldn’t wait to get it off.

“Since I've come to Hearts I've never been injured. I've never experienced it before so I have been quite lucky. To get two relatively bad ones straight after each other is probably quite freak. You need to deal with it, it is the risk you take as a footballer that there is always a chance you can get injured.

“The way that I play there is probably a good chance you can get kicked the wrong way and the amount of kicks I've taken already and nothing has come from it. You just need to deal with it and I have got good people around me to help me deal with that.”

McKay’s return to the matchday squad against Rangers coincided with Craig Gordon, Craig Halkett and Nat Atkinson also being named on the teamsheet after overcoming lengthy spells on the sidelines. It’s left Steven Naismith with a welcome selection headache heading into the busy festive period.

Aberdeen are up next this afternoon with the Dons toiling in 11th. And McKay says the third place Jambos are desperate to put more distance between themselves and the side that pipped them for the best of the rest spot in May - a frustration they are determined to put right this season.

He said: “It is a tough one to take. If you can't get the top two you want to be third and that guarantees you Europe until Christmas, guarantees you all the glamour ties and the top teams. These are the competitions you want to play in.

“Playing Thursday-Sunday can be tough but if you ask any player they will say they want to play both games. I did it last year and I never wanted to be rested. You see all the top, top teams and they just bash through the games pretty easily all season.

“If you want to be in the top competitions that's what you need to do. It can be tough with all the travelling, flights, coming back, playing away from home. It's about us and finding a way to win.”

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