McTominay reveals he had his heart 'shocked' before Scotland's World Cup opener

Scott McTominay has opened up about a health scare that was kept quiet during the World Cup. The Scotland midfielder says he had his heart "shocked" just two days before the team's opening game against Haiti.

What happened?

Speaking at a press conference at Hampden (Scotland's national stadium) on Tuesday, the 29-year-old said: "I had to go and get the shock on my heart two days before the Haiti game."

At the time, the Scotland camp said he had missed training because of a stomach complaint. In fact, a mild, benign heart arrhythmia, an irregular heartbeat, had first come to light after the squad arrived in the United States in early June.

He still played all three of Scotland's matches at the tournament. They beat Haiti 1-0 in Massachusetts on 13 June, but went out in the group stage.

Why does it matter now?

McTominay says he felt fully fit, but admits the timing was far from ideal. "When you're sat in a hospital bed two days before the first game of the World Cup about to get put to sleep, it's not ideal, is it?" he said. He stressed it was "nowhere near an excuse".

He said the disappointment of the World Cup lingered. By his own account, he spent two or three weeks feeling not quite right mentally, and called it probably the most disappointed he has been in his career.

The problem returned in August while he was playing for Napoli in Italy. After the club's first two Serie A matches of the season, he decided surgery was the only option. He had a cardiac ablation, a procedure to correct heart rhythm, in Manchester in September and missed the whole month.

What's next?

That meant McTominay missed Scotland's first four games under new head coach Sebastien Pocognoli. He is now back in the squad after playing all nine of Napoli's matches since the last international break.

"I'm feeling much, much better than what I was," he said. He added that the procedure "went really, really well" and was relatively straightforward, even if news of a heart issue looks worse from the outside.

Scotland host North Macedonia on 13 November, then travel to Switzerland on 16 November for their final Nations League games. Both kick off at 7.45pm.