McTominay Had Heart Shocked Before World Cup Opener

Scott McTominay has revealed he needed to have his heart shocked just two days before Scotland's first World Cup match in 28 years — and then played all three games as his country crashed out in the group stage.

The Napoli midfielder made the disclosure at a Hampden press conference on Tuesday, speaking publicly for the first time about the scare that the Scotland camp kept hidden in June by saying he had missed training with a stomach complaint.

"I had to go and get the shock on my heart two days before the Haiti game," McTominay said, as reported by Sky Sports.

A hospital bed two days before the biggest game

The problem was a mild, benign heart arrhythmia — an irregular heartbeat — that first came to light after Scotland arrived in the United States in early June. McTominay was cleared to play by his cardiologist and by doctors from both Napoli and the Scottish FA after the shock treatment regulated his heartbeat, and he started all three group matches against Haiti, Morocco and Brazil.

"I was 100 per cent (fit), but obviously when you're sat in a hospital bed two days before the first game of the World Cup about to get put to sleep, it's not ideal, is it?" he said. "You've prepared so well, I was in such good condition and then something like that happens and you're thinking, 'How is this happening to me?'"

Scotland went out in the group stage, and McTominay admitted the tournament left him lower than anything else in his career. "After the World Cup, it was probably the most disappointed I've ever been in my career," he said, adding that it took two to three weeks to get the disappointment out of his system. Reuters also carried his comments on Tuesday as he returned to the national team camp.

Surgery in September, and a midfielder reborn

The arrhythmia did not go away in America. It continued to affect McTominay in August after he returned to Italy with Napoli, and after playing the first two Serie A matches of the season he opted for surgery: a cardiac ablation procedure in Manchester in September that kept him out for the whole month.

That absence cost him Scotland's first four matches under new head coach Sebastien Pocognoli. Since returning, though, he has featured in all nine of Napoli's matches since the last international break and has scored five goals — including one in the Champions League defeat at Porto, where he briefly levelled a game Napoli went on to lose heavily.

"I'm good. I'm feeling much, much better than what I was," he said. "It was a relatively straightforward procedure which went really, really well in Manchester. I'm just really happy to be back playing football again. That's the most important thing in my life and it always will be."

Napoli need him at that level. Sunday's draw with Lazio left them off the pace in Serie A, and a fit, scoring McTominay is central to any revival in Naples.

So what does it change for Scotland?

Scotland sit third in Nations League Group B1 with four points from four matches, three behind Slovenia and eight adrift of leaders Switzerland. They host North Macedonia at Hampden on November 13 before travelling to Switzerland three days later, and McTominay is available to start for his country for the first time since the summer.

His return gives Pocognoli back his most influential midfielder at exactly the moment the group demands results. It also reframes Scotland's World Cup campaign: their best player was not merely out of form in America — he was two days removed from a hospital bed.

Beyond the Final Whistle: McTominay's revelation rewrites the story of Scotland's World Cup. The criticism he took in June looks very different now that we know he had his heart shocked 48 hours before the opener and said nothing. He played every game, kept the secret for five months, and only told the truth when he was fit again and back in the squad. That is not an excuse — he refused to use it as one — it is perspective. Will a fully fit McTominay drive Scotland to a win over North Macedonia on Friday night?