Martin Boyle opens up on injury hell as Hibs hero lifts lid on World Cup woe and unbreakable resilience to return

05.03.2023 - 09:23 dailyrecord.co.uk

Martin Boyle lay on the grass and looked into the clear blue Qatari sky. At that moment, it felt like the world was about to crash down on him.

Forty minutes passed and he was still there. Motionless. Numb. A concoction of emotions swirled around his head. Anger, sadness, dejection.

Maybe even bitterness. He was on the floor, exasperated. But overriding all of that was just sheer devastation. Because he wasn’t going to live his dream and play at the 2022 World Cup.

And every day since, the pain has still been there. Mentally, he’s somehow had to process the single biggest blow of his career.

Sporting Rangers cup on as Graham Arnold Martin Boyle Easter Road Qatar Scotland Australia

D espite him being barely 30 minutes into his senior international career, nobody can accuse newly minted Socceroo Alex Robertson of showing a lack of ambition for the future. Indeed, it would be difficult for him to be showing any more. “You’ve got to reach for the stars and win a World Cup,” he told reporters after Australia’s 3-1 win over Ecuador on Friday. “You never know what’s going to happen. You see what [Australia’s] just done at the last one and for the next few years, building up to [2026] I think we can do some really big things in the future. I mean, why not say it?”

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