Chris Cadden can’t wait for another crack at Rangers - after playing for 25 minutes on his last trip to Ibrox with a BROKEN BACK.
The Hibs midfielder has only returned to action this month after being told he had a 4cm fracture at the bottom of his back after the 2-1 defeat in Govan back in April.
Cadden suspects the freak injury, which was detected after he made a second half substitute appearance against the champions, was a result of too much running on the pitch.
But he insists he’s ready to empty the tank again as Hibs look to end a four-year wait for a win at Ibrox by inflicting a first home league defeat in 22 games for Steven Gerrard's side - and in doing so go top of the Premiership.
Asked how you break your back without knowing the 25-year-old said: “I have no idea!
“I had a week pain in my back in March. I was probably playing through it for about a month.
“Then after the last Ibrox game – the 2-1 defeat – I was really sore and achy.
“The physio said I needed a scan and to maybe prepare for being out for a few weeks or whatever.
“The scan came back and it showed about a 4cm crack on the bottom of my back. No-one saw it coming or thought that’s what it was.
“Probably the most frustrating thing about it is that you just need to sit and wait for it to heal. There is no way of progressing it or hurdles you can overcome. You just have to wait for the fracture to heal before you can do anything. That was it.
“I’ve never heard of someone breaking their back without actually falling on it. But it happened to me.
“I think it was a stress fracture. I maybe ran too much, I don’t know!
“Just the stress of that caused my back to fracture, which sounds mental saying it.
“It wasn’t actually that bad. I came on at Ibrox and felt okay. The adrenaline gets you through.
“It was more after the game that I felt it sore. Even sitting down there was a wee ache at the bottom of my back.
“The week after, before Stranraer, I tried to train through it. A day or two before the game it was really difficult and sore. That’s when we went to get the scan.
“It was such a frustrating period in my career with the big games and the big run at the end of the season as well to really kick on. I felt I was in a good place as well, I had strung a few games together and I was loving being here and playing football.
“I had to stop and missed a couple of games at Hampden, it was tough to watch but I was there supporting the boys and did anything I could to help the team.”
Cadden enjoyed mixed fortunes at Ibrox while at Motherwell, winning 2-0 in 2017 but being on the end of a 7-1 thumping a year later.
He’s never gone to Govan knowing a win would move his side top of the table though.
And it’s a challenge the twice-capped Scotland international is relishing.
He said: “That’s a bit different from before. You would rather that but we know how tough a test it’s going to be, they’re a great team and champions for a reason.
“No disrespect to Motherwell, I played in some great teams there and obviously got to two cup finals, but speaking for the squad I’m playing with now, the gaffer, the coaches and the mentality we’ve got, the culture we’ve got - it’s great.
“It’s always a big one before an international break because you then have two weeks without a game.
“We just need to go there and try and get a result – play as well as we can and execute as well as we can. After that, we can deal with what comes.
“It would be amazing but you can’t look too far ahead to the result. We just have to concentrate on the game first and foremost and then take the result at the end.”
