Harry Souttar: Stoke City and Australia defender on his 'amazing' World Cup experience

Harry Souttar spent a year out before returning in time to represent Australia in Qatar

As World Cup campaigns go, Harry Souttar's probably proved a bit more memorable than most.

Stoke City's giant Scottish defender raised a few eyebrows north of the border in 2019 when, despite having represented Scotland at under-17 level, he opted to play for his mother's country, Australia.

He scored twice on his debut in the Aussies' opening World Cup qualifier, two more in his second game, only to then suffer a knee injury on international duty that threatened to keep him out of the finals in Qatar.

But, after just one game back for Stoke, he was deemed fit enough to go to the Persian Gulf where he played every minute of all four matches as the Socceroos reached the last 16.

He also shared the same pitch as Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi - and then came back home to rave reviews.

• 3 Dec - Aussies exit to Argentina

• 30 Nov - Australia 1-0 Denmark

• 26 Nov - Tunisia 0-1 Australia

• 22 Nov - France 4-1 Australia

Souttar 'didn't take much notice' of his rave reviews

Now the only eyebrows being raised are at the sort of figures newspaper reports are already suggesting it might take to tempt Stoke to part with such a prize asset.

"There's been a little bit of noise," Souttar told BBC Radio Stoke, ahead of Saturday's home date with Cardiff City. "But that just comes naturally when someone does well.

"That's for other people to talk about. I'll just concentrate on the job in hand. I was focused only on the football going into the tournament and I didn't take much notice of it.

"My whole concentration now is on Stoke City and getting three points from what is now a massive game for us at the weekend.

"I'm disappointed with how it ended [the World Cup] but when I look back at how far we got and the performances of the team, the whole experience was amazing and I loved every minute of it.

"The only downside was that I came back home to find all the milk in the fridge had gone off!"

Messi 'the best player who has ever played the game'

Along with the many upsides, the last-16 tie tie against Argentina - when the Aussies so nearly battled back from a 2-0 Messi-inspired deficit to go down 2-1 - will stay in Souttar's memory for life.

"Messi is the best player who has ever played the game in my opinion. It was so difficult to defend against him," he said.

"We played well against Argentina but sometimes that's just what the world's best players do - they win games with that little bit of magic.

"But I will look back in years to come and realise how thankful I am to have played against him."

Harry Souttar labels Lionel Messi the best player there has ever been

World Cup was culmination of a 'special journey'

Souttar says his other main cause for gratitude was to the support team that helped him through his year-long fight back to full fitness from the cruciate knee ligament injury sustained in Sydney against Saudi Arabia in one of Australia's final qualifying games for Qatar.

"It's been a long 12 months of highs and lows," he said. "But I have to give a big shout-out to the physicians for all the amount of hard work they've put in to help me get back.

"And to see my family out there at that first game against France really brought home to me the journey I've been on. The result wasn't what we wanted, but it was still special."

At 6ft 6 ins tall, Souttar is built like a second-row forward and yet has made his name not at Highland games, but at football.

For a young man reared in an Aberdeenshire village as a boyhood Brechin City fan, whose elder brother John has won six caps for Scotland, it does still seem slightly bizarre that Souttar should have chosen to pursue his international ambitions down under.

Harry Souttar also had the job of trying to shackle Kylian Mbappe in Australia's first game

But one other positive from his experience out in Qatar was the healing of any rift caused by his rejection of Scotland for Australia back in 2019.

"I had a lot of lovely messages on social media from the people back home," Souttar said.

"Brechin Boys Club had done a few events in the community with the kids wearing Australia tops and 'Good Luck Harry' messages.

"That was nice to see, because it was a bit of a different reaction when I did choose Australia three and half years ago.

"There was a lot of a people saying a few things I didn't really agree with so for it come full circle and for people to be supporting you is really nice.

"Now I'm back home and seeing it on TV like any other fan. I was sat there with my dad and my girlfriend the other night watching and I said to them 'It just feels mad that two days ago I was out there playing'. That's when it hit me."

Souttar also said that, having been on the receiving end from France in the Aussies' first game, he will not be that sorry if the French perform as well again in Saturday night's quarter-final against England.

"That's the Australian and the Scotsman in me coming out," he grinned.

His first step back to domestic reality will be Saturday's Championship game with Cardiff.

He will clearly now be the most match-fit of all Stoke's players, the rest of whom made it to the Persian Gulf themselves, but only to a week-long warm weather training camp in neighbouring Dubai.

Souttar happy to do what mum says

It also needs to be remembered that, in the past 13 months, Souttar has played just six games.

Two were for Stoke, either side of his injury (and both against his former Stoke boss Nathan Jones' Luton Town), along with those four very proud ones for Australia.

He also now has Australia's next World Cup to look forward to and will cherish his memories of Qatar - and his shirts. Not opposition ones - his own Aussie tops.

"I didn't swap shirts with anyone as it was my first World Cup," he said. "So I've kept all my tops.

"My mum always said to me 'I don't want to see you swapping shirts with anyone'."

Harry Souttar tangled with Argentina's Lisandro Martinez during the round of 16 match at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium

Harry Souttar was talking to BBC Radio Stoke sports editor Matt Sandoz