Scott McTominay played every minute of Scotland’s three group-stage games at the 2026 World Cup. What almost nobody around the team knew was that, two days before the opener against Haiti, the Napoli midfielder was lying in a hospital bed having his heart shocked back into normal rhythm.
McTominay told the Daily Mail that he had been cleared by three different sets of doctors and felt fit, but that the timing left him rattled.
“I was 100 per cent, but whenever you are sat in a hospital bed two days before the World Cup, about to get put to sleep, it’s not ideal, is it?”
His absence from training in the days before the Haiti game was publicly explained away as a stomach bug. Scotland went on to win the opener 1-0, before defeats later in the group stage ended the campaign.
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A diagnosis spotted by a wearable
The 29-year-old’s problem resurfaced in the summer after the tournament, and Napoli confirmed on 1 September that he would undergo a procedure for what the club called a “mild benign arrhythmia”, flagged by the heart-rate data from the GPS vests players wear in matches and training.
The cardiac ablation, a routine procedure in which heat or cold is used to interrupt the faulty electrical signals in the heart, was performed at Spire Hospital in Manchester on 8 September. He returned to competitive action for Napoli on 10 October.
Four goals in seven games back
Since that comeback the midfielder has looked untouched by his summer. McTominay has four goals in seven appearances since the operation, enough for Scotland’s head coach Sébastien Pocognoli to bring him straight back into the national squad.
Pocognoli named a 26-man party for the final two Nations League group games, with Kieran Tierney and Ché Adams also returning from injury. Scotland sit third in League B Group 1 with four points from four matches and need two wins to keep alive a play-off for promotion.
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Hampden Friday, St Gallen Monday
The first of those matches is at home to North Macedonia on Friday, 13 November at Hampden Park. The second is away to Switzerland in St Gallen on Monday, 16 November.
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