Cammy Devlin revealed the stress he felt at the 2026 World Cup as he looked to make his move to Rangers.
After losing out on the William Hill Premiership title with Hearts on the last day of the season with a late defeat away to Celtic, who made it five in a row, the combative 28-year-old midfielder travelled to North America with Australia, who were knocked out of the tournament at the last-32 stage by Egypt on penalties.
Throughout his time with the Socceroos, speculation abounded about the possibility of teaming up again with manager Derek McInnes and captain Lawrence Shankland, who both made the move to Ibrox.
On July 11, the day after Hearts confirmed Devlin would be leaving Tynecastle on freedom of contract, he signed for Rangers on a two-year deal with the option of a further year.
He made his first appearance in a blue jersey in the second half of Wednesday’s 2-1 friendly win over St Etienne at Ibrox, where he impressed the Light Blues fans and manager McInnes.
Ahead of the Gers’ final pre-season friendly against West Ham on Sunday, the Sydney-born player said: “Yeah, it was stressful to be honest.
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“It was hard, obviously. We didn’t have much time to kind of reflect on how last season ended and then it was straight into the World Cup, which is one of the most special moments of your career.
“My mum and dad and my girlfriend were over in America supporting me at the World Cup. You never think as a kid you would be lucky enough to be involved in that, so you’re trying to enjoy that as much as you can.
“I thought it would be a good idea going in there off contract, but it wasn’t. It was too stressful. It was hard to kind of enjoy being in the moment and being at the World Cup and dealing with all that and all the noise around it. I had my dad asking me every day what’s going on.
“But obviously everyone kind of knows the relationship I have with the gaffer. We’re super close. He was so good for me at Hearts. Everyone knows the season we had there last year, and he helped me so much just as a player.
“So obviously I was speaking to him. And then when he got the job here, we kind of had contact at the start, but not a whole lot. I can imagine when he became the Rangers manager, there was a lot more going on than just me, and you’ve got to remember that.
“So I was trying not to focus too much on it and trying to, like I say, just enjoy the World Cup. But when the opportunity came, it was one that I thought was too good to pass up.
“Obviously being at Rangers is such a massive football club and that was kind of what happened for me. But yeah, like I say, it was pretty stressful. I’m glad now it’s all over.”
