David McNaught celebrated making his 300th Vale of Leven appearance last month – and hopes there will be plenty more to come after overcoming a serious injury that left him wondering if he’d ever play again.
The forward, who joined the Vale in the summer of 2008 from Dumbarton, made his 300th appearance for the Alexandria side in their 4-0 victory against Newmains United on September 25.
That number would’ve been higher too if it hadn’t been for the pandemic and a cruciate ligament injury that forced McNaught to miss almost two years of football.
And the injury – which saw the player go under the knife five times – left him determined to play for as long as possible.
The 33-year-old, who has bagged 85 goals for the Vale, told the Lennox: “There was definitely a time where I worried about whether or not I’d be able to play again.
“When I first did my cruciate it was about six months before I got the operation. I wasn’t doing much at all in that period.
“I eventually got the operation which was successful, until I got an infection. The cruciate was fine, but the infection wasn’t – and that led to about four other operations.
“At that point it seemed like I’d never be playing football again. I felt like my leg was going to need chopped off or something!
“It was great to finally get back from that. It just took a fair bit of time to rehabilitate after that.
“I was eased back in and everyone at the club looked after me well.
“Now I want to play for as long as possible.”
Born in the Vale, McNaught admits that representing his local club makes the achievement all the more special.
He continued: “It’s quite a number to rack up when you think about it.
“It suits me. The Vale are a great club to be at and I’m a local boy as well. I just really enjoy playing for the club.
“As a local guy you always want to do your best, you don’t want folk saying bad things about you when you’re doing your shopping!”
After reaching the milestone Vale boss Brian Brown paid tribute to McNaught, who he hopes will move into the dugout at the newly named Cheaper Insurance Direct Stadium when he hangs up his boots.
Brown said: “David has been a fantastic servant to the club and is also one of the nicest guys you’ll meet in junior football.
“He has had his issues with injuries and keeps coming back and hopefully he’ll become part of the coaching staff when he’s done playing.
“You always need guys like David around the club who will help the younger guys along – he never misses training and always makes himself available.”
And McNaught admits he would love to stay with the Vale for years to come.
He added: “I’d love to stay involved in football when I retire from playing. If that’s with the Vale then that would be great.”
“I’ve not done much coaching in my time, but I do quite fancy that.
“I’ll try and keep playing for as long as possible though and then take things from there.”
