David Wotherspoon has slipped comfortably back into the St Johnstone routine after his Canadian World Cup adventure.
And manager Callum Davidson expects the three-time cup winner to make a seamless transition from Doha to Dingwall as the Premiership season gets underway with a weekend trip to face Ross County.
“When you go to a World Cup, there is preparation for every game and they come round quite quickly,” said the Perth boss.
“David really enjoyed it. He had some good sessions and he managed to keep ticking over.
“He was fit when he left and he is fit now that he is back.
“We got him 45 minutes against Kilmarnock on Saturday and he was fine.
“When you are a player, I don’t know if you realise how big a deal it is to play at a World Cup.
It did look familiar…#SJFC | @Spoony_10 pic.twitter.com/FLaXUldDNH
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) December 1, 2022
“We are all saying how brilliant it is for him and he is probably thinking: ‘I just played 15 minutes’.
“But when he finishes his career I think he will look back on it and go ‘wow’ and that it was a really special time.”
Getting him on the plane
Davidson, who struck the perfect balance between too little and too much game-time for Wotherspoon when Canada head coach John Herdman was making his mind up on squad selection, added: “I had to be fair to him with his injury.
“The Canadian manager obviously has a lot of faith in David because he could quite easily have left him out.
“We wanted to get him to the World Cup and luckily he came in and performed well for us.
“We went five undefeated and he was part of that. It made it pretty easy for him to go.
“I know what David can do and you saw little bits in games before the break.
“We’ll keep him motivated now because four years to the next World Cup is a long way away!
“It was just great that he got there and now he can focus on playing for St Johnstone again and doing the best he can.
“David is a fantastic character so it will be easy for him to do that.”
