Scotland forward Lewis Morgan thinks Scotland can “absolutely” surprise hosts Germany in Friday’s Euro 2024 opener.
The 27-year-old New York Red Bulls man was a late call-up to the provisional squad before being named in Steve Clarke’s final 26-man party last week.
The former Celtic man revealed he was only given a slim chance of returning to the highest level after undergoing a serious hip operation last September.
Morgan ended a six-year international exile as he came off the bench in Friday’s 2-2 draw in Scotland’s final warm-up match against Finland at Hampden Park.
He is now hoping to feature as Scotland try to spring an almighty upset as their Group A campaign begins against the hosts in Munich on Friday (8pm kick-off BST).
“Stranger things have happened in football,” Morgan said. “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.”
Who's got your favourite @EURO2024 celebration? 🙌#EURO2024 pic.twitter.com/0k9IGgjE8u
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 12, 2024
Morgan’s call-up completed a miraculous turnaround after undergoing hip reconstruction surgery in the US – something which he says could have ended his playing career.
He said: “I started to pick up a lot of hip strains, so we knew surgery was in the background, but I wanted to give everything I could to avoid it.
“I re-injured myself three, four, maybe five times, and each time the severity got worse and it culminated in a 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.
“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’.”
ICYMI | Tap below to watch our in-camp interview with Steve Clarke, as he covers our arrival in Germany, the start of training and builds up to Friday 🗣️#EURO2024
— Scotland National Team (@ScotlandNT) June 12, 2024
