Lawrence Shankland cut short his summer break to team up with his Hearts mates midway through their Spanish training camp for fear of missing out.
But just over a fortnight ago it was his missus with the dread of missing out - on their own Spanish sunshine break - as she sat at a drenched Hampden watching biblical rain throw Scotland’s clash with Georgia into doubt. The Tynecastle skipper admits partner Nicole was frantically scanning her phone for alternative flights as news broke through that the Euro qualifier might have to be abandoned and restarted 24 hours later - exactly when they were due to fly to Majorca.
Of course it all worked out well in the end as Steve Clarke’s men splashed their way to victory and team Shankland flew out for a well-earned Spanish holiday. But just two weeks later the hitman was heading back to the sunshine with fellow Hearts and Scotland colleague Zander Clark despite still having almost a week left to relax.
And it’s all down to a desire to be in the best condition and better than last season. The agony of letting third place slip from their grasp still gnawing away at the striker whose own performances could hardly be called into question after a 28-goal season.
Shankland was back in action as Hearts rounded off their pre-season trip with a 1-0 friendly defeat to Plymouth on Thursday. And asked if he could still have been sitting with his feet up back home he said: “I could have, yeah! I had two weeks off. The club would have given us an extra few days if we had wanted it. But to be honest you want to get involved as early as you can.
“I had been on my holidays, so that was it. There’s a bit of fear of missing out, you know the work they are doing. It’s a short pre-season as well so I thought I’d come back a week early and put the work in before the start of the season.
“My missus was fine with it. She was panicking at Hampden though. I think she was in the stand on Skyscanner looking at flights! Thankfully it went ahead. We were away the next afternoon to Majorca, so it wouldn’t have been too bad if we had had to change it.”
That time on the sunlounger gave Shankland time to reflect on a season which had so many positives especially on a personal level but ultimately ended with Hearts relinquishing their grip on the best of the rest tag and the guaranteed European group stage football that comes with it. They finished strongly after Steven Naismith took temporary charge but ultimately came up short.
He said: “It’s important you do that. When you’re on holiday you like to spend time with your family. But it’s also a good time to reflect and see what you can improve on personally. I felt it was a good season for me, my first season here, I became captain.
“There were a lot of good learning points for me and my goal numbers were good as well. But as a club our objective most seasons is to be third or above and we missed out on that. That’s as a collective and some things are out of your control. That’s something we know we need to improve on as a team and hopefully we can. If you’re losing games and dropping points it gives other teams a chance and Aberdeen took theirs.
“Come the end of the season you finish where you finish, I have no complaints. We can be disappointed and use it the right way, which is going to try and get that or above next season. We finished strongly and just missed out on third. It was good the performances were positive and it gives us a good start going into the new season.”
Shankland struck up a prolific partnership with Josh Ginnelly that produced 41 goals last season. And he admits the loss of the Englishman who has signed for Swansea leaves a massive void that needs filled - although the return from injury of Liam Boyce could go a long way to solving that problem.
He said: “I had a really good relationship with Josh on and off the park and we had a lot of success. We suited each other with the way we played and sometimes you have that bond with a player where you know what they want and they know what you need. There’s no denying it, he will be a loss for us, he was a key player in the team at the end of the season and he did really well.
“But he’s moved on now and we need to move on. I wish him all the best, he’s got a good move for himself. The club will be working on that side of things and getting replacements in and we’ll see who we get before the start of the season. I started with Boycey at the start of last season, playing as a 9 and 10.
“We’ll see. It’s up to the manager who is going to play in certain positions and whatever we get asked we’ll do. We’ve got players who have the ability to go and play in different roles if they need to, and that will be important for us.”
Meanwhile, Shankland admits he has aspirations to play at the top level like every player - but for now he’s concentrating on taking Hearts back up the rungs. The Scotland striker netted a stunning 28-goal haul last season to take his career tally to an impressive 175. That inevitably brought speculation over the 27-year-old’s future.
Shankland has seen team mate Ginnelly earn a summer move to Swansea off the back of his form while across Edinburgh Kevin Nisbet was also lured to the Championship from Hibs with Millwall shelling out for the striker. And while his name pops up every time Rangers are hunting a new goalscorer Shankland has also been linked with Championship sides in the past namely QPR, Sunderland and Swansea.
The Jambos skipper know he has room to kick on in his career. But he is content in Gorgie for now as he looks to make his mark in the Premiership and Europe again.He said: “Listen, I live in the moment and concentrate on what I am doing at the time. If I do well at Hearts and it leads to rewards or so called bigger moves then it does.
“But you don’t get them without concentrating on what you are doing here. Of course, everybody has aspirations, they want to kick on and play at a higher level and do what they can. Usually that comes with having success. If it happens, it happens, if if doesn’t, it doesn’t.
“But from a personal point of view there is room to kick on in your career - and of course I would want to do that if I could.”
Shankland got 45 minutes into his legs in Thursday’s 1-0 defeat to Plymouth in Marbella. He said: “It was alright. The first game of pre-season is always the same, it either goes really well or there’s a few things you need to work on. Listen, it’s early days. The most important thing is the boys got minutes in their legs and we know what we are working on.
“We tried it and at times it wasn’t perfect, to be honest, but it’s early days and there is loads of time to get it right.”
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