Billy Gilmour sits at Lesser Hampden with a smile spreading across his face as he talks about the World Cup he missed in the summer. It is a subject that could be defined by regret, but the Scotland midfielder’s mood does not match the story. Gilmour was days away from flying to the United States with Steve Clarke’s squad for the first men’s World Cup the nation had reached since before he was born when he suffered a knee injury in the farewell game at Hampden against Curacao. He was left behind.
The tournament did not pass him by entirely. Gilmour, who plays his club football for Napoli, recovered in the United States and became a supporter, travelling across Boston and Miami with his family around him. One evening at the baseball provided an unexpected diversion: he was asked to hobble on to the field and throw the ceremonial first pitch at the Miami Marlins’ game against the Texas Rangers.
“I was nervous,” Gilmour said of the experience. “I was just so happy it wasn’t a crap throw, or it was bouncing. It was some experience.”
The injury itself arrived swiftly and unmistakably. “The boys fell on top of me and I’ve heard something straight away,” he recalled. “Typical, try to run it off, make sure it was okay.” He described the days that followed as tough, and took himself away for a couple of days to switch off. Around the squad, he tried to be as positive as he could. “When you think of it, how lucky you still are to get to go there and watch the games and be with family and family holiday also,” he said.
That balance was actively encouraged. Gilmour spent some nights with the team, but captain Andy Robertson and Clarke, then the head coach, told him he did not have to come in if it was too much. The message was to stay as long as he wanted with his family and to experience the tournament with the fans.
Gilmour was still in Miami when news broke of Clarke’s resignation. He is a manager the midfielder acknowledges he owes a great deal to, having handed him his Scotland debut. Scotland are now in the Sebastien Pocognoli era, and Gilmour appears central to it. In the 0-0 draw in Slovenia on Saturday, it was Gilmour who caught the attention during a resurgent second half for the Scots.
He is usually seen as a deep-lying central midfielder, but there was a different dynamic to his game with club-mate Scott McTominay absent and recovering from a heart procedure. “When I was younger, I really liked playing higher up, trying to be among it,” said Gilmour, who is set to feature at Hampden on Tuesday against Switzerland. “Whenever I get asked to play on the pitch, as long as I’m on the pitch, I’m happy. I just want to play football and enjoy it.”
Now 25, with time ahead of him to make new memories in a Scotland shirt, he is probably a senior figure in a group welcoming a large number of young faces. It is a role he says he embraces, although he is coy about the prospect of taking on the armband whenever current captain Robertson decides to pass it on. “For me, it’s everyone’s dream to be a captain at a club or a country,” he said. “Of course I’d be really proud to, but Robbo’s my captain and he’s a really good captain as well. What he’s done for Scotland is incredible and he’s very close on the record and I’m sure he’ll get it.” Robertson sits close to the Scotland caps record held by Kenny Dalglish.