John McGinn, the captain of Aston Villa, hobbled off during Scotland’s draw with Norway in the Euro qualifiers.
Scotland captain McGinn was in the spotlight once more on Sunday night at Hampden Park, where he scored a goal and set up Stuart Armstrong for an assist. The game finished 3-3.
After securing their place in the EURO 2024 competition in Germany last month, Scotland’s most recent games resulted in back-to-back draws with Georgia and Norway.
Following the game, McGinn told BBC Sport, “The campaign has been amazing.” I’m really pleased with how the boys handled it. I believe that at the end, our team and group of players made the nation extremely proud. It had a strange atmosphere, but hopefully one we can get used to. I think the spectators were a little surprised that we had actually qualified.”
But after what seemed to be a harmless tackle, the midfield player was forced off 10 minutes from time, which has Villa supporters worried about his availability for Sunday’s crucial Premier League matchup against top-four rivals Tottenham (2pm kickoff). Before transferring the captain’s armband and hobbling off the Hampden pitch, McGinn looked as though he was holding his knee.
Fortunately, neither McGinn nor Scotland manager Steve Clarke brought up the matter in their post-match interviews, implying that the substitution was more of a precaution than a more significant move.
And it appears that Scotland and Villa will both need their captain to be in peak form. The Daily Mail gave McGinn a 7.5 for the game and stated, “The 29-year-old was the best player on the pitch.”
