Falkirk FC's Leon McCann explains 'innocuous' origins of his ankle break and torn ligaments

The 24-year-old, who first joined Falkirk three years ago after leaving Airdrieonians and has since made over 120 appearances for the Bairns, said: “It’s been a long time coming after fracturing my ankle at the start of the season.

"I got the injury in training. We were doing a two v two drill and it wasn’t even a shot, I went to block a pass and the ball’s hit my foot, I’ve gone over on it and heard the crack.

"I did a number of ligaments and I fractured the outside of my ankle.

"With the rehab, I was kind of rushing to get back. I was not wanting to miss any of the League Cup games so I came back on the pitch training within four weeks.

"However when I went to see other physios and specialists they said I should probably have been out for between eight to 12 weeks.

"I was training for six or seven weeks while nowhere near being fit but just trying to keep as fit as I could, just forcing myself to go through it which didn’t really do me much harm.

"It just felt sore and I couldn’t move properly. But I wasn’t rehab-ing for that long a time. I was in for just less than two weeks, building the strength back up, and now it feels great.

"I can move again the way I did before, it feels like I can run properly so everything is getting there now.”

McCann played a total of 42 times in league and cups for Falkirk last season during their ‘Invincible’ title-winning League One campaign and is thrilled to be back.

He added: “I came back maybe a wee bit too early towards the first few games of the season in the league when I just wasn't ready.

"But now I’m feeling great, the boys are winning and the morale about the full place and the team is brilliant. So it’s a great team and great place to come back into.

"For me it’s so good to be back involved. I had been involved in the two games before the recent Livingston match, but to start in that and get the 90 minutes was exactly what I needed and it was a great game for me to come into.”

League leaders Falkirk are back in Scottish Championship action tomorrow at Partick Thistle (kick-off 3pm). It is the only game being played in the division this weekend.

"We don’t want to get too carried away,” McCann said. “We’ve come straight up from League One and we’re doing amazing just now, a lot better than anyone could ever have imagined.

"Players, managers, fans, I don’t think anyone would have thought we would have even been close to where we are, just because we didn’t bring anyone in.

"But that just shows the players that we've got have all stepped their game up.

"Last year I felt we were a Championship team playing in League One and now we’re proving we’re more than good enough to be here.

"You see teams like Ipswich Town going from League One to the Premier League in back-to-back seasons and you do take inspiration from that because they’ve proved that it can be done.

"Livingston a few years ago as well, I think they did the same thing in Scotland, League One to Championship and then Premiership.

"Of course every single person around here wants to win the league again, we’re all winners in here.

"We don’t talk about it often, we just go a game at a time.

"But every single person in here wants to go up back-to-back because it would be absolutely massive for us personally and for the community and the club as a whole.”