'Blessing in disguise' provides opportunity for Mackay to re-establish himself in Inverness Caledonian Thistle first team
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While several of Inverness Caledonian Thistle's star players will be wishing they could have rewritten the start of the 2020/21 season to spend less time on the sidelines, one is grateful for the opportunity that has been presented to him.
Daniel Mackay has been a constant presence in ICT's starting line-ups with so many of his attacking colleagues on the injured list, but he is revelling in the chance to re-establish himself in the first team.
He empathises with the teammates who have been forced out of contention thus far, but is adamant that their absences have given him a chance to excel.
"It has probably been a blessing in disguise that boys have been out injured to be honest, it has given me an opportunity to play and show that I am raring to go again," Mackay explained.
"I know what it's like being injured and thinking you're alright then you're not, it's horrible.
"It couldn't have worked out better for me though, because I've been playing every week, I've started every game.
"It's good playing for Inverness, the team I've always wanted to play for, and hopefully I can carry that on."
After a blistering start to his career in Caley Thistle colours, Mackay struggled himself with injury as he tried to kick on.
He became one of the club's youngest ever scorers on debut against Peterhead in the League Cup, and provided the assist for the Challenge Cup-winning goal all while still a 16-year-old.
Injuries well and truly derailed his second campaign with the first team though, limiting Mackay to just two starts in total for the 2018/19 season.
"I don't know what it was, I would be fine for a time but then something else would pop up," he recalled.
"It was the knee injury that ended up killing me big time, we just couldn't get to the source of the problem and I kept breaking down.
"I would come back into training for two weeks and then have to go to the physio and say I couldn't do it because my knee was too sore, but we didn't know what the trouble was.
"I ended up getting an operation which wasn't great, it was such a stop-start year and I couldn't get myself properly fit.
"It was a hard one to take, it was tough mentally going from all the highs to then all the lows. They all came at once really.
"It couldn't have started better for me, and then it couldn't have gotten worse, so I've had the highs and I've had the lows."
Making an immediate impression arguably did not help Mackay's cause either, as the expectation level was set high on him from day one.
Some of that was self-imposed, but as he has matured – and after a productive loan spell at Elgin City last year where he was playing regularly – his perspective has changed.
A newfound confident has shone through in recent performances against Ayr United and Arbroath – against whom he scored his first goal of the campaign in a 3–1 win yesterday – and he wants to keep contributing in the final third going forward.
"I used to be hard on myself, wondering why I wasn't scoring or doing this or that," the 19-year-old reasoned.
"I did put a lot of pressure on myself, but I remember Barry Wilson saying to me that it wasn't a pressure that other people had put on me, because I didn't need to worry about that, I had to set my own expectations.
"If I had a bad game, I didn't have to worry about that. Now I know that every game isn't going to be perfect, because that's not football.
"I don't feel any pressure. Obviously I want to be scoring goals and helping the team, but if that's not working you need to do something else for the team and hopefully someone else can reap the rewards.
"I just want to make an impact, that's what I've always tried to do – even if I'm having a bad game I try and do something to make a difference in the game.
"People only remember what you do in the final third, that final thing you do with the ball, so my goal is to make sure that I'm doing something productive and helping the team in some way.
"The only way we can reach our targets is if everyone does their wee bit and we get a bit extra from somewhere, so all I'm looking to do this season is score a good amount of goals, get a good amount of assists and make sure I've done what I can to help the team this year."
