{"id":759201,"date":"2026-02-12T09:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T09:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/759201\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T09:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T09:50:18","slug":"billy-gilmour-returns-for-napoli-to-hand-scotland-major-world-cup-boost-after-four-months-on-the-sidelines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/759201\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Gilmour returns for Napoli to hand Scotland major World Cup boost after four months on the sidelines"},"content":{"rendered":"

The classy midfielder\u2019s comeback will give Scotland a huge World Cup boost as the countdown to the tournament truly begins<\/p>\n

Mark Walker<\/strong> and Darren Cooney <\/strong><\/p>\n

09:36, 12 Feb 2026Updated 09:39, 12 Feb 2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Billy Gilmour(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Billy Gilmour will next week return to the Napoli<\/a> squad \u2013 after almost four months on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

The classy midfielder\u2019s comeback will give Scotland<\/a> a huge World Cup<\/a> boost as the countdown to the North American tournament truly begins.<\/p>\n

Gilmour hasn’t kicked a ball since the start of November, when he was taken off in the first half of a goalless draw against Como in Serie A<\/a> and went under the knife the following month to solve a groin issue.<\/p>\n

The injury caused him to miss Scotland’s historic qualification for their first World Cup in 28 years after Steve Clarke’s side beat Denmark at Hampden<\/a> and he was also absent from the previous game’s defeat in Greece.<\/p>\n

Gilmour was originally pencilled into a return last month, but the injury has taken longer than expected to heal and the former Rangers, Chelsea and Brighton star has missed plenty of football for the Italian champions.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour celebrate Napoli title success last term<\/p>\n

However, reports in Italy have confirmed he will officially return to full training at the start of next week and is in contention for a return to action against Atalanta on February 22.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old playmaker has made 12 appearances for Napoli this season and scored his first goal for the club in September in a win against Pisa.<\/p>\n

And the 43-times capped ace should be available again for Scotland for next month’s friendly double-header against Japan and the Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n

Get more Daily Record exclusives by signing up for free to Google\u2019s preferred sources. Click HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The classy midfielder\u2019s comeback will give Scotland a huge World Cup boost as the countdown to the tournament…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5009],"tags":[44177,748,4884,6277,712,13315,8634,16,15,1514,93214],"class_list":["post-759201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scotland","tag-billy-gilmour","tag-britain","tag-great-britain","tag-napoli","tag-scotland","tag-scotland-football-team","tag-serie-a","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-world-cup","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116057042213025602","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=759201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}