John McGinn has spent the last 10 days climbing the walls – but now he wants to help Scotland climb their qualifying group.
Aston Villa midfielder McGinn had been in isolation after contracting Covid-19 and missed the 2-0 defeat to Denmark on Wednesday.
He was a frustrated onlooker from home as a depleted Scotland side took to the field in Copenhagen and were comfortably beaten by the Danes.
McGinn, along with Stephen O’Donnell, Kevin Nisbet and Nathan Patterson, are all back in the camp for today’s World Cup qualifier against Moldova at Hampden Park, with Scotland needing points to get their campaign back on track.
“I’m feeling fine. It’s been a tough 10 days,” said McGinn. “I’m probably the worst player in the squad to be stuck in the house for 10 days.
“There was a bit of PlayStation and I was watching every game under the sun. I was chewing the walls. I think a few years ago I would have been battering the Deliveroo.
Out of Covid jail and back with the boys 🦠🏴 https://t.co/bkClM6vQOp
— John McGinn (@jmcginn7) September 3, 2021
“You live and learn but this time Villa were great and they dropped off a treadmill at the house to keep me ticking over. I feel okay, a bit more tired than normal yesterday, but better today and ready to go.
“It was tough being in the house but harder to watch the boys knowing I couldn’t help out. We’re a tight-knit group and when the result doesn’t go your way it hurts you can’t go and help in some way.
“I’m a nightmare when it comes to watching. It’s the same with watching my brothers or being on the bench.
“You’re just willing the side on. I don’t get nervous playing but watching is just horrible. I didn’t enjoy it one bit.
“We all just want Scotland to win and when I’m watching I’m no different to any supporter. I’m shouting at the ref and everything.”
The midweek defeat in Copenhagen dropped Scotland to fourth in their group, behind Denmark, Israel and Austria, with the latter to come next week.
The Moldova games takes on extra significance for the home side as it will be the first time in nearly two years they have been able to play in front of a capacity crowd at Hampden.
“There will be 35,000 for the first time in two years,” he said. “I focused on that excitement to get me through the last week or so.
“Hopefully we can deal with a game we are expected to win the way we have done in similar matches in recent years. The fans will make a huge difference.
“It’s about us putting on performances that will fill Hampden again. We are not going to get sell out crowds unless we start playing and entertaining. We need to get bums off seats. We’re not naive, if we don’t get results then the crowds will dwindle.
“It’s up to us to entertain on Saturday and the next home game against Israel is a sell out crowd. I’m keen to get that feelgood factor that was building going into the Euros.”
The disrupted preparation for Denmark was something Scotland were keen not to make an issue of but for McGinn, the national side are due a change of luck.
“If we mentioned that it would sound like an excuse,” he added. “I wasn’t even thinking about it, but now you’ve mentioned it, we lost Billy (Gilmour) in the summer, we lost Kenny (McLean) for the whole tournament, Ryan Jack was out injured.
“We are missing a lot of players who were settled. We had a settled group. This time you had myself missing, Nissy (Nisbet), Stephen O’Donnell, big McTominay. That is three people who are regular starters for a long time.
“We certainly had a nucleus of the team who were getting an understanding of the way the manager wanted to play and getting used to each other which is sometimes difficult in international football.
“It certainly was a blot, but at the same time the world we’re living in at the moment is affecting not only us. Switzerland have had issues, Denmark had injury issues the other night. We can’t dwell on it the other night and use excuses because we do have a deep quality squad.”
