Aberdeen captain Ryan Jack admits it will be a strange experience when he goes head to head with former teammate and close friend Fraser Fyvie in today’s Scottish Cup semi-final.
The pair came through the Dons youth ranks together and lined up in the first team before Fyvie opted to move to Wigan in a £500,000 deal in the summer of 2012.
While Jack went on to become Aberdeen captain and make more than 200 appearances for his hometown club, Fyvie struggled to establish himself south of the border and joined Hibernian two years ago.
But the pair will play against each other for the first time and Jack is hoping to get the better of his close friend at Hampden this lunchtime.
He said: “I spoke to Fraser on Wednesday which was our day off.
“We had a wee chat on the phone and both our families are quite close through the kids and our partners.
“We just had a chat, not too much about the game. I’m sure he doesn’t want to give me too much info and I’m the same.
“At the end of the day we’re both professionals, we’ve both got a job to do come Saturday and we both want to be on the winning side.
“We started playing for Aberdeen together when we were seven and played right through the youth ranks together, then we broke into the first-team at the same time too.
“We played a few games together with me at right-back and him at right-midfield under Craig Brown and Archie Knox, and then Fraser moved on and took a different path with his career.
“I’m looking forward to playing against him and playing against Hibs, it will be a different test.
“I’ve never played against Fraser. The last time we played Hibs he was injured, so this is the first time at any level we’ll have played against each other apart from in training.
“I’m a year older than him, and I picked up a foot injury when I broke in and then he came in for a few games. We had a good understanding because we grew up together and we were mates off the park.
“It was great to come right through the youth ranks together and break through together.
“It will certainly be different and it’s something we’ll never have experienced being up against each other, but we’re both professionals and we both want our clubs to get to the cup final.
“Come Saturday, all of our concentration will be on the game.
“There’s a few sub-plots with the Shinnie brothers on either side as well, and I don’t know if they have ever played competitively against each other either.
“That would be strange too lining up against your brother, but it’s part of the game and we will all just be concentrating on getting to a cup final for our clubs.”
Jack, meanwhile, was highly entertained by the antics of Hibernian forward Jason Cummings earlier this week.
The 21-year-old grappled with professional wrestler Grado at the Hibs training ground in a video which went viral on his Twitter account.
Jack added: “I saw Jason’s video and it was interesting to say the least. It just shows though that they seem to have a good bit of banter and a good team spirit amongst them and that’s important.
“We’re the same, we’ve got a real togetherness in our squad and that obviously helps on the pitch.
“Hibs have had a successful season and they have been promoted, and we’re looking to secure second again and get to another cup final, so that just goes to show what a good team spirit can do for you on the pitch.
“I couldn’t tell you who the best wrestler at Pittodrie is, maybe Andy Considine because he’s a big lad.”
