Inverness CT v Kilmarnock: How Scott Kellacher trauma has galvanised Highlanders

From fighting for promotion to fighting for your life. In football a moment can change everything - and the same is true when it comes to your health.

"I just wasn't feeling the best for a couple of months," says Inverness Caledonian Thistle assistant coach Scott Kellacher. "And then one night disaster struck. I was shaking really badly and the wife was quite concerned. I just passed out."

Kellacher was rushed to hospital, where it was discovered he was suffering from Viral Encephalitis - a potentially fatal inflammation of the brain.

On top of that, he was also diagnosed with Covid-19. That meant the treatment plan changed and he was sent home to recover and self-isolate. But before long he found himself fearing for his life.

"Two days later my wife was looking after me and trying to get me in the shower. Everything just sort of packed in on me. I genuinely thought that could be it," he says.

"I didn't understand what was happening, everything was shutting down. It was one of those moments where it was quite frightening for my wife and the kids.

"I managed to get back to the bed with her help and then I was taken into hospital. For eight days I was on oxygen, really struggling to breathe and didn't know where I was."

As the seriousness of Kellacher's plight became clear, concerns for his well-being were being felt by everyone connected to Inverness Caledonian Thistle, as chief executive Scot Gardiner recalls.

"There were a couple of times where if I wasn't in tears I was close to tears because we were thinking he might not make it," he says. "It was enormously distressing for us so goodness knows how bad it must have been for his family, and him himself."

Thankfully Kellacher's condition would improve eventually. He was discharged from hospital again, but the path back to the training pitch and dugout would be far from smooth.

"From me getting out of hospital, to seven months later, it was a long journey. A lot longer than I thought it was going to be. Halfway through that journey I got taken back into hospital again, which was a massive setback.

"There were days when I would try and go for a walk. Maybe 10, 15, 20 minutes and then that would be me for three, four or five days - I just couldn't get out of my bed.

"The club played a massive part getting me back on the road to recovery. I've been here nearly 19 years now. It's a big, big part of me. I'll always be grateful for the way they helped me get through it. I'll never forget it."

But there would be a further twist to the tale. Illness and trauma were not quite finished with Inverness CT.

Almost a year after Kellacher fell seriously ill, Gardiner would find himself in hospital with Covid, fearing for his own life.

"It was my kidneys and my lungs it went to," he explains. "It was the scariest couple of weeks of my life, being on oxygen and being told you're struggling [and] no one can see you. The Covid ward is not a place you'd recommend to your worst enemy.

"One very bad night I was brought round by doctors and nurses and [they're] saying 'you're in a bad place and we are going to give it three or four hours and then we will see what we are going to do with you. If you don't get better in the next three or four hours we are going to give you a drug to give you a 20% better chance of surviving.

"Fortunately by the morning I had got better and got more oxygen into the bloodstream, and I didn't need to get that."

Now Gardiner is able to look back and reflect on the impact the last couple of years have had on the club as a whole.

"The best thing about Caley Thistle are the people. When it got out about Scott, all the club and fans rallied around him.

"There was no drama, just affection and warmth, and I felt that the same, although I was nowhere near Scott's condition because he had the double whammy.

"It makes you want the place to be more successful for the people who are all here. It definitely brought everyone together."