McTominay: Dealing with injuries is tough

The 23-year-old racked up more first-team appearances last term than he has in any of his previous campaigns at Old Trafford, while he also netted our 2,000th Premier League goal and bagged important strikes against Arsenal and Manchester City.

However, Scott also suffered the first long-term injury of his senior career in December, and was rotated in and out of the side after Project Restart.

For that reason, McTominay has plenty to reflect on ahead of a new campaign and, speaking to the Official Scotland national team podcast, our no.39 knows ups and downs are an unavoidable part of football.

“Whenever it’s all going swimmingly, you’re playing every week and scoring a few goals here and there, it’s good. Then you get a setback and you have to react to that,” he said.

“You can’t hang your head and be disappointed about that. You have to think about when you’ll be back and set dates for yourself to push yourself back from injury as well as you can without re-injuring yourself.

“For me, injuries are part of football and you have to accept that. You’ll never go through your career without picking up a minor injury, or a longer-term injury. Everyone will have some troubles in their career, but that’s part and parcel of football.”

Scott also opened up on the mental toll of missing games through injury and the importance of surrounding yourself with a supportive network of people.

“A lot of that does come from the people you’ve got around you, your family… my mum and dad stayed at my house for two or three months when I got injured,” he revealed.

“They made sure I ate all the right foods, which I do anyway, checking if there’s anything you need. They’re the type of people who get you through stuff; always having someone there to speak to if you’re having a tougher time.

“For me, it went so quick from when I first got injured [in December] - my knee, that was 10 weeks - that went really quick because I had people around, coming to see me. You can’t really do much when you’re on crutches!

“The physios at the club were amazing and they pushed me every single day to my limits to get me back as quick as I could, and it shows when you come back to matches and you’re ready. You’re only mugging yourself off if you don’t come back in that way.”

Get ready for next season. Our 2020/21 home and away kits are available now from United Direct.