Winger Lewis Morgan believes Scotland can “absolutely” surprise Germany in Friday’s Euro 2024 opener.
The 27-year-old New York Red Bulls player was a late addition to Steve Clarke’s provisional squad for the tournament and secured a spot in the final travelling pool of 26.
Morgan returned to international action after a six-year absence, coming on as a substitute in last Friday’s 2-2 home draw with Finland.
“Absolutely, stranger things have happened in football,” Morgan said about the possibility of Clarke’s side upsetting the host nation.
“We’ve got a really, really talented squad here, a good group of players playing at the highest level in world football.
“There’s no reason why we can’t go there and get something, but we can only do that if we give the best version of ourselves and stick to the game plan.”
Morgan’s international comeback marks a significant turnaround in fortunes for the former Celtic, Inter Miami and St Mirren forward.
In September, he underwent major hip surgery and says the “fear” of not recovering was motivating.
“I started to pick up quite a lot of hip muscle strains, so I’d get injured and then I would come back, so we really knew surgery was in the background, but I wanted to really give everything I could to avoid it,” he explained.
“I probably re-injured myself maybe three or four, maybe even five times, and each time the severity got worse and then it culminated in a really, really bad psoas tear, which is supposedly unheard of.
“I had the surgery, which involved almost a complete reshaping of my hip. It was quite intense. As soon as the surgery was over, all the pain that I’d had was almost gone and then it was just about recovering and getting back.
“They were giving me around an 80-85% chance of returning to play full stop and then returning to performance level was maybe like 20 or 25%. Maybe that fear sort of drove me on in the rehab process to make sure that I didn’t skip any corners and I give myself the best chance.”
And he added: “It’s quite surreal to think, ‘oh now I’m back playing and I’m performing at a good level’.”