Chelsea teenager Billy Gilmour is targeting a return to Premier League action after the international break as he recovers from his knee injury.
The 19-year-old underwent knee surgery back in July and has since been in a rehabilitation period.
Fortunately, Gilmour has returned to training with the rest of his Chelsea teammates in the past week and been named in the Scotland U21s squad for their Euro U-21 qualifiers against Croatia (Thursday, 12 November) and Greece (Tuesday, 17 November).
Speaking about Gilmour’s inclusion in the squad, Scotland U21s boss Scott Gemmil said he has been in contact with the Blues over the midfielder’s injury situation.
“We’ve been in communication with Chelsea regarding his rehabilitation and I’d like to thank them for their assistance and making their player available,” he told the media (via the Daily Record).
“I’m delighted his next step in recovery is being called up to the U21s squad.”
Gilmour is eager to be playing for Chelsea again
Gilmour is hoping that he will be fully recovered by the time he returns to London.
“I can’t wait,” he told Four Lads Had a Dream podcast last week.
“Hopefully when I come back after the international break I can start to kick on again, get over my injury and start playing games for the team.”
Gilmour also shared how he had already felt something in his knee even before joining Chelsea.
“Ever since the [2016] Victory Shield days, I had to wear tape around my knee. And I always felt that something was wrong.
“Since I came to Chelsea, I have had a problem with my knee at the end of the season.
“When it came to Crystal Palace, I felt something go in my knee in the first half. The adrenaline was helping me kick through it but you don’t think straight away ‘this is a bad injury’.
“You think ‘I have had a knock, I will be fine next week’. From that, I got told I had to go and have surgery on my meniscus.”
The midfielder also thanked his Chelsea teammates who have helped him cope with the recovery period.
“Going into training, everyone in the team was keeping my mind off the injury and talking about other stuff,” he explained.
“I was always happy, the boys were very good with me when they saw me and talked about football and other stuff.”