Emotional David Wotherspoon admits he was pinching himself when he got the call to represent Canada at the World Cup. And he reckons his international teammates can make a splash as they return to the big stage for the first time since 1986.
Wotherspoon is on the comeback trail after almost a year out with a serious knee injury he picked up against Celtic early last season. He made his long-awaited return off the bench against Livingston and despite starting just twice since, he earned the call-up to go to Qatar - where he hopes to add to his ten caps.
The St Johnstone star, who switched allegiance to play for the country of his mother's birth in 2018, was given the nod despite not playing for them since November last year and missing the second half of their historic qualifying campaign. But he's now hoping to repay manager John Herdman, who called him up ahead of their 1-1 draw with Motherwell.
He said: "I got an email on Saturday morning from manager John Herdman informing me I was definitely going to the World Cup and I couldn't quite believe it. But I had a game to play on Saturday afternoon so I quickly had to get back and focus on that.
"I tried not to think about the World Cup. I tried to put it to the back of my mind. Of course, I wanted to be at it and I knew if I didn't get picked I would have been disappointed because I worked hard over the past 12 months since my injury to try and get back on the pitch.
"I finally made it back and my main goal was to make the World Cup, so it's dream come true. After the Edmonton camp with Canada last season, I came home and we had a semi-final against Celtic. About an hour into the game I turned my knee awkwardly and ruptured my ACL and had to get surgery.
"So I have had to work my way back since the surgery in December. I've had a lot of help from the physio teams both at St Johnstone and Canada to get me back to where I am.
"The mental side of it was very hard just to hear that news that I couldn't play football for so long and knowing how tough the challenge ahead was. Not everyone comes back from these types of injuries.
"It was a hard one to take and mentally it was tough but I had a lot of support from my family. They stuck by me."
And he can't wait for the tournament, where Canada face Belgium, Croatia and Morocco. He stressed: "I'm going to enjoy every minute of it that's for sure, but the focus is on this team and what we want to do which is to go to Qatar and win games. We want to prove to everyone we deserve to be there.
"We know we have the players in our team that can hurt sides and we know we can give anyone a game. We can perform against the best and this is the stage we can do it on.
"We are full of confidence and raring to go. It's an honour to be here."
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