Ross County's Craig Curran overcomes fear injury would end his career

Ross County striker Craig Curran feared he may have to quit football after suffering a serious concussion.

The striker, who has signed a one-year contract extension, sustained two head knocks which undermined his health for 18 months.

"There were days when I just wasn't in the room," Curran told BBC Scotland.

"I was struggling to hold conversations. I was sleeping ridiculous amounts and no matter how I lived, I was just spaced out."

Curran received a blow to the head in a game against Kilmarnock in August 2015, having suffered damage to his eye socket only weeks before. The injuries left the striker suffering from dizzy spells, disrupted sleep, headaches and illness.

'Eventually I found something that worked for me'

The 27-year-old has been managing his symptoms, trying various forms of treatment, but now feels back to full health.

That has allowed him to continue his career, with his contract extension keeping him at Ross County until 2018.

"I kept going, I tried loads of things. Eventually I found something that worked for me," said Curran, who has scored seven goals in 34 appearances this season.

"I'm lucky in that respect because I probably would have been struggling to play again come next season. I would have had a serious decision to make. Luckily enough the persistence paid off.

"Some games me and the gaffer would decide it was best I didn't play. I was just getting burnt out. There was nothing we could do.

"We tried everything until January of this year. I was still pretty bad and then I sort of got to the bottom of the problem. From January to now I've recovered.

"It's nice to be over the health problems just to get sort of a normal life back instead of being in bed all the time."

Liam Boyce and Craig Curran formed a strike partnership that helped keep County in the top-flight in 2015

Curran joined County from Conference outfit Nuneaton Town in January 2015 and his partnership with fellow striker Liam Boyce was pivotal in the team avoiding relegation with a run that included eight wins in nine league games.

Curran hopes that experience will help ease any threat of relegation, with County just three points clear of the play-off place ahead of Friday's visit of Highland rivals, Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

Too good to go down?

County sit eighth in the Scottish Premiership, eight points clear of Caley Thistle at the bottom.

"We're honest enough to know we're out of nothing yet," he said.

"Are we too good to go down? Yeah definitely, but we've still got to prove that.

"We all know we've got far too much quality to be down there. Football's not that easy and there's not going to be any easy games.

"This year we could have done better, but we're going to finish strong and we can kick on next year.

"It's a huge game [on Friday]. If we beat them, that gap becomes really big, [and it will be] difficult for them to close that."