Ianis Hagi as opened his heart on the mental anguish of coping with the ACL injury that robbed him of more than a year of his career - and insisted he will become a better player than he was before.
Rangers’ Romanian midfielder scored his first goal in 16 months in Sunday’s 3-1 win over Hibs and his emotional celebration with the entire Ibrox team showed what it meant to him. Now he’s ready to kick on next season to become a major part of Michael Beale’s rebuilt Rangers.
Hagi said: “One thing is for sure, I have never doubted myself since the injury. I know how much work I put in and how much I love this sport. The challenges I have ahead, and I have had them before as well, they are definitely not as big as my ambition. So the only way I see it is I have to go through it, surpass them so I can tick all the boxes and be 100 per cent back to what I was before.
“And why not even better? It’s so much more mentally than physically this injury. Physically you get there but mentally it’s about how you manage the challenges that lie ahead of you. It’s definitely an injury that isn’t easy to come back from but I embrace everything that is put in front of me.
“I have done that as a kid, I had the pressure of the name and everyone pointing fingers at me at seven years old, everything he does he does because of his father. So for me, these were just another small challenges which lay ahead of me so I embraced them.”
The 24-year-old admits he leaned heavily on his superstar father Gheorghe during the dark times that followed the injury, sustained in January 2021 in a Scottish Cup tie against Stirling Albion. I am happy and I have the advantage of having a father who performed so well in the sport.
“I’d be stupid if I didn’t ask for his advice, so of course he has been beside me on this journey, especially in the bad moments. So I am really thankful to him, my family and other loved ones - and especially to Rangers because they have been patient with me.
“They have believed in me and that’s hard to find in the world we’re in, in football. So it depends on me, how I train every day and regain the trust of every single person out there and come back to what I was. It has been a long journey for myself and I am happy the first goal came. I have been working on it, working to get fit as soon as possible in all aspects. Here I am, I’ve scored my first goal so I am happy.”
And now that he’s back, Hagi insists he won’t be taking much time off in the summer as he tries to become an integral part of Beale’s new look Gers. He added: I am looking forward to everything, the challenges are ahead of us.
“We’re not going to look back on what happened this season, we have two games to go and our duty is to win those two games then get into the summer. Everyone will take some time off, others will train more than they have to - I will do that 100%, I have been out for 13 months and that’s enough for me away from football!
“I won’t take too much time off, I am going to focus on what I have to get better at. And come pre-season I want to be one hundred percent in all aspects. We have challenges, we have qualifiers and want to get back to the biggest stage in football, the Champions League and win some trophies.”
