Aaron Hickey has tipped Scotland teammate Ben Gannon-Doak to make a big impact at the World Cup.
Like Brentford full-back Hickey, the £25million Bournemouth winger missed Euro 2024 through injury.
Now fit and firing, the two linked up effectively as Scotland finalised their preparations for the opening game against Haiti in the early hours of Sunday with a 4-0 thrashing of Bolivia.
While Gannon-Doak has drawn comment over his final product, the former Liverpool wide man laid on two goal assists in New Jersey.
And Hickey, who celebrated his 24th birthday at the Scotland hotel yesterday, said: “I think he has something different. He adds something different to the team which is exciting for all of us.
“I think we all know that he has that something a little bit different. I think his pace is frightening. He’s probably one of the fastest players I’ve ever played with.
“He brings that to the team which is good so, yeah, he’s going to be a very important player for us.
"It's exciting for myself as well, playing with Doaky. I think he's a good player, young, exciting, so I think we'll still get used to each other, what we do and how we link up and also defensively. The sessions we're working on every day in training.
“It’s important to have a mixture of young players coming through and it’s important also to have the senior players, to keep the young boys on their toes and make sure they help them out every day in training. It’s good to have that mixture of both.”
Hickey’s return to fitness comes after botched surgery on a severe hamstring tear ruled him out of first team action for 659 days.
Players arrived at the Scotland base camp in America to find pictures of themselves as young boys in a journal.
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Hickey’s featured the defender in a Scotland shirt as a 12-year-old boy outside his former family home in Jordanhill, Glasgow. And he returned to his old stomping ground before flying off to America to pose for a new picture in his Scotland World Cup tracksuit.
“Obviously, every young boy from Scotland supports Scotland. Actually, when we got the hotel there was a little book of pictures of when we were all young boys.
“There was a picture of myself as a young boy with my Scotland jersey. So to be here now, playing for the team at a World Cup, it’s nice.
“I went back to Manor Road in Jordanhill where the picture was taken just before flying to the World Cup. It was nice to go back to where it all started.”
Fully over the injury issues which ruled him out of the last Euros the former Hearts defender prepared for the heat and conditions in America by taking 20 minute saunas every couple of days with his club and now wants to look forward to the opportunity of a lifetime.
"I think it's one of the hardest things, being injured as a footballer," he said. I can't tell you how hard it is and obviously missing out in the tournament at the Euros last time was very difficult.
"But I'm just delighted that it's in the past now, and I’m here at the World Cup.
“I think it definitely makes you stronger mentally. Now that I'm sitting here here, thinking back about how hard it was, it was tough times.”
Asked how he proposed to spend his birthday in Charlotte at the squad’s training camp he said: “I mean I'll spend it with my teammates, maybe get a little cake at dinner, but none of us will eat it. It'll be nice to spend it with the team.
“My dream is just being here to be honest. Playing at a World Cup with your country is everything. So, yes, what a way to spend it to be honest.”
