John Souttar has confessed it was a baptism of fire facing off for Rangers against Celtic last weekend after being thrown back into the starting XI for the first time since last July after overcoming a long-term injury.
And the centre-back, who made a costly mistake during the derby defeat, admits he was only told at the last minute by head coach Michael Beale that he would be given the nod from the off because of a hip problem picked up by fellow defender Connor Goldson. Souttar was signed from Hearts on a pre-contract last summer and arrived at Ibrox with big expectations having broken into Steve Clarke's Scotland squad.
But a stress fracture in his ankle kept him sidelined for the majority of the campaign as he sat helpless while Celtic climbed ever closer to clinching another Scottish Premiership title. He said: "I only really knew the day before that I was playing. It was a difficult game to come back into but just to play football again, I was buzzing to be back out on the pitch."
Souttar also revealed that he had lingering doubts over his fitness BEFORE the first league clash of the season against Livingston and knew he would have to focus on returning a better player once he recovered from the blow.
He added: "I felt the pain before the Livi game and during it then we got it scanned after and it was the stress fracture in the ankle but it was what it was. I had to get back, keep myself in shape and come back the best possible way I can.
"I think you have to be mentally strong, you have to have an end goal, focus on coming back, focus on being the best you can and focus on playing for Rangers - which is what I signed to do.
"So I actually never felt like I'd done that before so that was always the goal for me to come back and be as good of player as I possibly can for the club."
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