{"id":944295,"date":"2026-05-07T17:56:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/944295\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T17:56:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:56:28","slug":"forgotten-scotland-star-refuses-to-give-up-on-world-cup-dream-after-battling-back-from-a-year-of-injury-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/944295\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten Scotland star refuses to give up on World Cup dream after battling back from a year of injury hell"},"content":{"rendered":"

The attacker would love to play at the biggest show on the planet – especially when its on his doorstepContent cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

Lewis Morgan insists he’s still dreaming of a World Cup<\/a> call-up after battling back from a year of injury hell.<\/p>\n

The ex- Celtic<\/a> and St Mirren attacker missed almost 12 months after suffering a nightmare knee injury at New York Red Bulls.<\/p>\n

Now, the 29-year-old is back playing regularly with San Diego following his move to the MLS expansion side in December.<\/p>\n

Morgan<\/a> – who scooped multiple Player of the Year awards across his four seasons at NYRB – has two goals in five starts so far as he works his way back to full fitness.<\/p>\n

And the seven-times capped Scot hopes to make a late push for Steve Clarke’s final 26-man squad<\/a> – just as he did for Euro 2024.<\/p>\n

He told Record Sport: <\/strong>“There’s no disappointment in not being involved because I’ve not been available to be involved. I literally just came back and started playing.<\/p>\n

“What I will say is all the guys who are there have performed at such a high level. They’ve qualified for the World Cup and deserve all the respect that they get.<\/p>\n

“I think, rightfully so, those guys are getting the recognition they deserve. But from a personal standpoint, it’s all about trying to put yourself back in the manager’s thoughts.<\/p>\n

“I do think obviously getting that experience at the Euros and wanting to play for your country is the biggest honour you can get.<\/p>\n

“It’s about showing at club level that you can go back in there and bring something to the team. I think I do that.<\/p>\n

\"Lewis<\/p>\n

Lewis Morgan in action for Scotland(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

“I think I’m maybe a different profile from the strikers or forwards we have there. Trying to show that my skill set can be an asset for us is obviously what I’m trying to do at club level.<\/p>\n

“Now that I’m back fit, I’ve just got to try and perform to the best of my abilities here and hopefully that’s enough to try and get recognition.<\/p>\n

“If not, I’ll be the number one supporter. I look forward to supporting the boys in the summer.”<\/p>\n

Morgan hasn’t featured for Scotland since a Nations League cameo against Portugal in October 2024.<\/p>\n

But he said: “You’ve got to think of that until you’re not in the 26. You’ve got to give yourself the best chance every day of getting in it.<\/p>\n

“It’s something that I won’t give up on. If I don’t get there, at least you can look back and say that you’ve done everything you could to get there.<\/p>\n

“I’m a realist and know that I missed a lot of football, so I might need to perform even better than most to get in that squad.<\/p>\n

“It’s something that I need to put pressure on myself and try and perform at club level to get there.<\/p>\n

“But for sure, it’s still on my mind to try and force my way in. I also realise how difficult a task that is and how talented a group of boys we’ve got there in the squad as of right now.<\/p>\n

“I need to show that I can bring something different.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The attacker would love to play at the biggest show on the planet – especially when its on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":944296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,2628,4884,263695,712,13315,70572,21841,70571,16,15,1514,93214],"class_list":{"0":"post-944295","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-lewis-morgan","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-scotland-football-team","14":"tag-scotland-u19s-football-team","15":"tag-st-mirren-fc","16":"tag-steve-clarke","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-world-cup","20":"tag-world-cup-2026"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116534588450173496","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944295","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=944295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}