Kevin McDonald on kidney transplant journey as Dundee United recruit jokes 'I don't want to look like a bag of s***e'

Kevin McDonald is seeking a new lease of life on the pitch after facing a desperate fight for survival off it.

The Dundee United new boy was in urgent need of a kidney transplant but while his brother Fraser was a match and donated one of his, McDonald’s body rejected it in the days following the operation.

That left the 33-year-old fearing the worst as doctors fought to turn around the dire situation.

A make-or-break course of medication was prescribed in a bid to have McDonald’s body accept the transplanted kidney and after 10 days of waiting and worrying, he was given the news he had been praying for.

The kidney was functioning properly and he could set about resuming a normal life.

McDonald, who could make his debut against St Johnstone today, said: “The rejection part was the hardest part as you don’t know if it’s going to work. You start thinking, ‘Am I going to get another transplant?’.

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“Fortunately enough, I was fine before the transplant but the rejection was a nasty rejection. You don’t feel anything and you can’t control what’s going on inside you.

“They overcome it by using ATG (anti-thymocyte globulin). I was taking my bloods each day and after every day they’d assess me.

“The first dose