Sutherland believes best is yet to come as he returns to Inverness Caley Thistle
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SHANE Sutherland wants to emulate club legend Barry Wilson’s path to career longevity by placing healthy diet and fitness at the heart of his Caley Thistle regime.
The former Elgin City and Peterhead striker cherishes his second chance at full-time level, seven years after dropping down the leagues after being released by Inverness.
Having returned this summer in the shape of his life, Sutherland is keen to make an impact not only in the coming campaign, but for a good number of years ahead.
Wilson, these days first team coach with ICT, took heed of wise words from past Inverness manager Craig Brewster, who himself enjoyed an elongated, age-defying career at the top level.
Playing on at Inverness until 36, Wilson still had the legs for on-field action at Queen of the South, Peterhead and Elgin before hanging up the boots for the last time with Highland League Wick Academy.
Having waited so long to make it back to this level, Sutherland – who turns 30 this month – isn’t about to waste the opportunity to maximise and extend his career.
“A lot of people say strikers hit their prime from 28 to 31, so hopefully my best is ahead,” Sutherland said.
“I felt I had a good season at Elgin last year before it got cut short by the pandemic.
“Hopefully I can hit the ground running at Inverness, as I feel I have in training.
“Barry Wilson played on until he was a ripe old age and I actually played with him in his latter years. Even though his legs might have gone a little bit, he always had the quality.
“He realised at a certain point in his career that it wasn’t all about ability, you had to look after yourself a little bit better and stay as fit as possible for as long as possible because it’s such a short career.
“He made the most of it through that, and it is definitely something I’m looking to do.”
Sutherland, then, has not surprisingly lapped up the hard running and double-sessions since returning to full-time training almost three weeks ago.
“The boys are buzzing to be back and especially me – it was a long time coming after signing the pre-contract in January,” he said.
“I’ve been looking forward to getting back full-time and it has been hard work, as you expect in pre-season.
“But it is great to be back in a full-time environment.”
At first, Inverness trained in two camps with morning and afternoon sessions for groups of around 10 players to minimise contact.
After a week, though, there was a welcome return to full contact training with the two groups united.
“For the first week, one group would be going out at 9.30am and the other at 11am, and then we had the same split sessions in the afternoon.
“For the second week, we were allowed back to contact training so all the boys are back in together. That helps a lot, especially for the coaches who were out for the full day.
“It felt really good having all the boys back together.”
He added: “We did a lot of running and barely saw a football for the first couple of days!
“All the work I did personally in the summer paid off because I felt good in the runs.
It wasn’t as hard as it usually is because I’d done so much over the lockdown period.”
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