Motherwell's McGinn on retirement fears to season of dreams
· Yahoo Sports
When Motherwell's Paul McGinn pulled up with a recurrence of a thigh injury, bringing his 2024-25 season to a premature end, he feared his career was over.
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Making his first start in three months against Hibernian in January, the same problem struck again - a devastating blow.
However, the veteran defender has recovered to enjoy arguably his finest season at the age of 35, playing a key role in forming the Scottish Premiership's meanest backline.
Jens Berthel Askou's side have achieved that while playing the most expansive football in the league, with McGinn thriving as a ball-playing centre-back.
"I remember coming off as a sub at Hibs thinking that was me done, fully," McGinn told Motherwell's club media. "I thought that was it because it was the same injury I'd just come back from.
"I don't know how I've got back to this, to be honest. This season has been right up there for me."
McGinn had initial doubts about Askou's style in the early weeks of the Dane's tenure, but an impressive pre-season display against Hertha Berlin fuelled the captain with belief.
In the following match, he made an error for Rangers' opening goal in Motherwell's first league game, before Askou's side responded to earn a deserved point.
The Fir Park club have since become one of the stories of the season, sitting fourth in the table having lost just five games and conceded only 23 goals in 31 league fixtures.
Many Motherwell fans are watching their team play the best football of their lives during a surreal season that has even seen the Lanarkshire side involved in title talk.
That conversation has quietened after a three-game winless run - defeats to Dundee and Celtic, followed by a draw with Hibs - but McGinn says the focus must now be on securing fourth place as a minimum.
"We need to finish strong," he added. "We want to finish high and in a position we feel we deserve.
"It would've been surprising at the start of the season to say we'd be disappointed with anything lower than fourth. But we would have underachieved if we dropped out of the top four.
"We've got a tough run of fixtures. It's not going to be easy, but no team comes to play us thinking it'll be an easy victory."