Aston Villa captain John McGinn has disclosed the severity of a training ground accident during his time at St Mirren, revealing he was just a millimetre away from a life-threatening injury. The incident, which occurred in April 2015 when McGinn was a teenager, involved a teammate, Steven Thompson, and a training pole.
Recounting the event on The Overlap podcast, McGinn explained that the accident happened during a possession drill. Thompson, attempting a joke, swung a training pole but lost sight of McGinn as he made a turn. The pole struck McGinn in the leg.
"It wasn’t portrayed correctly," McGinn stated. "It was a possession drill. Gary Teale was the manager at the time and Thommo was a big character in the dressing room. A great mate of mine, really good (guy). We’re doing this drill, you run through the gates for a point. He’s charging towards me, the training pole’s kind of bounced up at him, hit him on the chin, so he can’t see me. And I’ve Cruyff turned back for another point. He was a big joker and he’s went to chuck it in the ground to give everyone a laugh. But he’s not seen me come back. So, I got a big fright."
Upon examination, it was discovered that the pole had penetrated 7.7 centimetres into his leg and hit bone. While not initially excruciatingly painful, the true danger became apparent after a scan. McGinn learned that the pole had come within a millimetre of his femoral artery.
"The surgeon sat back in his seat and he went, ‘If it hit that, you were dead, basically. You would have bled out in minutes’,” McGinn recalled. "Just because of where it was and the blood I’d have lost. So, it was a bit of a fright but I lived to fight another day."
McGinn expressed no ill will towards Thompson, understanding it was a freak accident. "Thommo was white as a ghost," he said. "But I wasn’t angry at him because it was just a freak accident."
He also touched upon a potential move to Celtic in 2018. McGinn was keen to join the Glasgow club from Hibernian, but a transfer never materialized. He believes that his family ties, with his grandfather having been Celtic chairman, may have influenced the club's approach, leading them to expect the transfer to be a formality.
"I think the irony is if he (Jack McGinn) wasn’t my grandpa and I wasn’t a Celtic fan, I probably would be a Celtic player," McGinn said. "I think they felt because I was a Celtic fan, it would just happen, nobody else would come in and Hibs would crumble. But Hibs were amazing at the time. They said, ‘we’re not going to stand in your way, we know you want to be a Celtic player, but they need to pay us what you’re worth’. So I gave them my word that, ‘alright, that’s fine, you won’t stand in my way, but I’ll wait until they pay what I’m worth’, and it never ever got there."
Instead, McGinn joined Aston Villa from Championship, where he has since played a key role in their resurgence, including their qualification for the Champions League. He stated that Aston Villa's proactive approach, including opening their stadium at night and showing him a specific suite and jersey number, made him feel highly valued and contributed to his decision to join the club.