Ross County attacker Alex Schalk crawled out of his sickbed to steer the Staggies into the top six.
The Dutchman missed three days of training but agreed to play for County in the pivotal top six decider against Partick Thistle on Saturday. He delivered, just as he did when he scored the winning goal in the League Cup final against Hibs, by netting the only goal of the game to secure the top six berth for his club.
Schalk was relieved his contribution was enough to help the Staggies win the game and said: “I was pretty close to missing the game as I’d been in bed a couple of days with food poisoning. I couldn’t train the last three days and had been sick in bed.
“I spoke to the manager every day about how I was feeling – even eating was difficult – but we decided on Saturday morning to give it a go in the warm-up and if I had no energy I’d sit it out.
“But I felt better, perhaps due to getting some adrenaline into my system, and decided I would give it a go. The manager wanted me to play and I wanted to play as well, but when you don’t train or eat properly for three days it’s a struggle and I beat the odds a bit.
“After 60 minutes I was done as my energy levels were low, but sitting on the bench watching the last half hour was even worse.
“We had the scores on the telephone from the Dundee game and it was so exciting. I’ve never felt that nervous before and when the full time score came in we were all delighted.”
County’s win means they could yet end a memorable campaign by qualifying for European football with fourth place carrying a reward of a place in the Europa League qualifiers should Celtic win the Scottish Cup.
The Staggies are a point behind fourth-placed Well with five games remaining and Schalk believes his club can go on to take fourth place.
He said: “We want to end the season as high as possible and fourth place is up for grabs. Every player wants to be as high as he can and when we come back after the break we’ll be back on our feet and ready for the last five games.”
European qualification could also help County’s efforts to keep the Dutchman at Victoria Park next season.
Schalk is out of contract in the summer but is open to the idea of staying in Dingwall beyond the summer.
He said: “Both sides are really positive on how it has gone the last couple of months and we’ve said we’ll talk again after the split and we’ll see what happens.
“I’m going home next week and it will be good for me to have a chat with my family and my agent so we’ll see what happens.”
