Harry Souttar’s miraculous recovery from an ACL injury just in time to represent the Socceroos in Doha
When Socceroo Harry Souttar felt his ACL go a year ago, he was worried he would never be the same again. But he's back fit and with some key lessons learned, writes ADAM PEACOCK.
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Stoke City’s home ground is a filthy place to play. Cold, windy, rainy. The conditions turn football artists into tradesmen. Substance first, then style, if you can.
Even when Lionel Messi was at his absolute best in Barcelona, wise guys would whisper, ‘Yeah, but can he do it on a cold, wet Tuesday night in Stoke?’.
The good news for the Socceroos is that one of their most important players can.
Harry Souttar, after a year out, returned to first-team football on Tuesday night. It was wet. Windy. Cold. Luton came to Stoke snarling, with a couple of monster strikers, but big Harry led a 2-0 win.
For Souttar, it was bliss for what it meant, rather than what it was.
“The game isn’t one that anyone will look back and think, ‘What a great game of football’,” Souttar tells CODE Sports dryly.
“The ball was in the air more than on the ground! My head was banging this morning, nice little introduction. But I was happy with it.”
In the most unforgiving place, Souttar’s journey back reached an important destination.
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Almost a year to the day before his return, Souttar twisted on a sodden pitch on a warm, humid Sydney night, with big blobs of rain tumbling from the sky.
Souttar was trying to corral a Saudi Arabian attacker in a World Cup qualifier, and then fate blew his knee to pieces. ACL gone. Souttar’s mind filled with one thought.
“My first thought that night was, ‘Right I’ve got a year to get fit for the World Cup’,” Souttar says.
“In the back of your mind you’re always thinking, ‘Ah what if it’s not the same’, 100 per cent shitting myself!”
The towering defender, ducking through doorways at 200 centimetres, first thought of a World Cup appearance long before Australian football thought of him. Souttar grew up in the tiny village of Luthermuir, two hours north of Edinburgh.
Jack, a proud Scottish father, hoped his two football-mad boys, John and Harry, would play for Scotland. Harry can also recall mum Heather saying her place of birth, Australia, was an option.
Jack, as Scottish as whiskey in a barrel, didn’t think much of the idea.
“Guess I listened to mum out of the two of us,” Harry says.
John played for Scotland in 2018, but Harry was slower to develop, and kept growing. Eventually talent got in sync with his frame. Scotland remained unconvinced. So when Graham Arnold got in touch with an offer to join Australia’s under-23s Olympic team in 2019, Souttar jumped.
Arnold soon saw the big boy wasn’t just a heading machine at set pieces. Quick, decisive, good on the ball, Souttar was fast-tracked into the Socceroos, where he quickly became a first-choice central defender.
World football’s biggest test now awaits, but only after a testing 12 months.
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As soon as Souttar got injured, he worked on ways to accelerate the healing process any way possible.
“Remember the doctor saying if you can keep your leg straight before the operation it can be better for you down the line,” Souttar says.
“So the day I got home from Sydney I was in bed, watching a movie and had the band around the ankle to get my knee straight. Was in absolute agony. But it was going to help me.”
Best intentions didn’t stop bad luck. Four months post-op, Souttar was straight-line running and getting ready to return to team training, until what felt like a pebble threw him off course.
“Running along I suddenly felt like a small stone was in my knee, sharp pain,” Souttar says.
He’d need injections to calm the pain and three months off running.
Then it happened again. Running. Pain. Injection. Six weeks off. A possible August return was pushed to the start of November.
“I would be in the gym, watching the lads train, then see them go home,” Souttar recalls.
“But I’d have to go do 20 kms on a bike, then back to the gym.
“As the months and the weeks went by, setback after setback, it was a little bit of a worry if I was going to be fit for (the World Cup).
“My girlfriend might say that I’ve been a bit of pain in the arse, but I’m a positive person, so I got into the gym more, doing upper body to fill out a little more. The backroom staff, the lads, and family; had a great support network.”
Third time lucky, Souttar got through the running rehab and progressed to the next stage, team training. Just a normal session that any professional would do thousands of times. It felt like a World Cup final.
“Was tentative until I made my first block tackle, a 50-50,” Souttar says with a faint smile.
“Then I realised I’d be fine.”
Before his injury, Souttar was rated a $30 million player. Premier League clubs were sniffing about, preparing bids to tempt Stoke into selling a prized asset.
The proud club with a loyal following; 20,000 hardy souls on a Tuesday night invested all they could into Souttar’s recovery. On the Saturday previous to Tuesday’s comeback, Souttar sat on the bench in a loss to Birmingham City, and got the biggest cheer of any player in the match day squad. Manager Alex Neil rates him highly.
“The club has been brilliant. Scans, injections, the effort people have put in behind the scenes. Can’t thank them enough,” Souttar says.
But now his focus is firmly fixed on the World Cup and representing Australia. As soon as Souttar linked with the Olympic team in 2019, he felt at home. Even when injured.
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In June, mid-frustration with his recovery, Souttar was summoned by Arnold to go to Doha and surprise the squad before the Peru game. The whole group erupted when he walked into the meal room.
Be it men born in Australia, Kenya, Egypt, Croatia, Serbia or a healthy contingent from Scotland, the Socceroos’ togetherness is as real as any close family.
“That’s what makes the whole team special. Lads with backgrounds from all over the world and every time we’re together it’s like we’ve never been away,” Souttar says.
In a little over a week, they’ll need unity and then some.
Cold Tuesday nights in Stoke are one thing. Desert nights in Doha with French superstars Kylian Mbappe and Karim Benzema for company, another.
“The names on the team sheet are household names, yet that’s a great test for us to do the very best we can,“ Souttar says.
“I need to get better over the next couple of weeks. But I feel sharp, and ready.”
Originally published as Harry Souttar’s miraculous recovery from an ACL injury just in time to represent the Socceroos in Doha
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