Borna Barisic admits he feared he’d miss Euro 2020 after injuring himself against Celtic.
The Croatian left back sat out his country’s first two games but came off the bench as they eliminated Scotland on Tuesday, and is now in contention to feature in Monday’s knock-out match against Spain.
But the Rangers star revealed he was worried that he wouldn’t make the tournament after a muscle injury in the final Old Firm clash of the season.
That was compounded when he then hurt his back in what was a worrying time for the 28-year-old.
Barisic said: “I’ve played a lot of matches with Rangers and, of course, at the end of the season and the end of the championship, my focus was on the European Championships which I had been waiting for so much and had been postponed because of Covid.
“Of course, when I had my first injury at Rangers against Celtic, I was worried about the Euros, I was worried about the condition I’d be in when I came to Croatia.
“I managed to fix that and came in good condition. But, unfortunately, I had an unusual injury with my back and that messed with my plans a bit.
“In my second training session when I came to Rovinj, I injured my back and had problems since then. I managed to briefly fix that, but then it returned.
“Thank God, everything is fine now, everything is good.
“I played those 20 minutes against Scotland and managed to do my part a bit and help the team qualify for the next round.”
The support of manager Steven Gerrard was key.
A veteran of international tournaments with England and having gone through the pain of missing the 2002 World Cup with a broken foot, he understood where Barisic’s head was at.
The Croat added: “I won’t talk about the advice, but he did wish me the best of luck at the tournament.”
