{"id":5369,"date":"2026-01-08T06:23:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=5369"},"modified":"2026-01-08T06:23:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T06:23:24","slug":"stuart-findlay-how-ever-present-hearts-defender-became-perfect-fit-at-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=5369","title":{"rendered":"Stuart Findlay: How ever present Hearts defender became &#8216;perfect&#8217; fit at Hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Motherwell right-back and Scotland cap Stephen O&#8217;Donnell recently said it was incumbent on all Scottish players to give national manager Steve Clarke &#8220;a headache&#8221; in the run-up to the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Findlay and Halkett are two such players but Findlay has the advantage of having worked with Clarke at Kilmarnock.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He is also one cap better off than his club-mate, having made his sole international appearance in a 6-0 win over San Marino in 2019 under Clarke.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The national team head coach is fiercely loyal to players who have served him well and Grant Hanley, Jack Hendry, Scott McKenna, Souttar and Kieran Tierney would all appear to be ahead of Findlay in the queue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;There&#8217;s a few lads maybe on the outside of that just looking in at the minute,&#8221; McInnes added. &#8220;Going into big tournaments, there&#8217;s always maybe one or two casualties for injury and you just never know.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;If you&#8217;re playing for a team at the top of the league then there&#8217;s always significant players within that. But likes are Stuart and Craig Halkett, Stephen Kingsley, Harry Milne, these boys, you just never know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">And Findlay added: &#8220;Every professional football player, until the day they retire, wants to play for their country. It&#8217;s the highest honour you can get in a game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I know the manager well and there&#8217;s no surprise to me how well he&#8217;s done. As a Scotland supporter, I trust him implicitly to pick the squad that he thinks is the best. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;For me, the biggest thing for me this season was doing well at Hearts. Of course, it&#8217;d be a massive bonus and it&#8217;d be great to be involved in.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Motherwell right-back and Scotland cap Stephen O&#8217;Donnell recently said it was incumbent on all Scottish players to give national manager Steve Clarke &#8220;a headache&#8221; in the run-up to the World Cup. Findlay and Halkett are two such players but Findlay has the advantage of having worked with Clarke at Kilmarnock. He is also one cap<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}