The Scotland Women’s National Team have overcome last week’s travel chaos and are now bound for Santiago, Chile for the BDO World Cup Qualifier later this week.
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As well as spending time in preparation for the tournament, one of the squad members, Catriona Forrest, has had to put her physiotherapy career on temporary hold, ahead of the important upcoming World Cup Qualifying matches against Ireland, Malaysia, Chile and Australia.
Due to start as physiotherapist with the NHS in March, Forrest, 24, has pushed back the start date of her new job in order to fly out to the tournament with the squad and add to her 67 caps for Scotland. She was able to negotiate a later start date with her new employers so she could to put her full focus and energies into playing for the national side.
“I wanted to focus 100% on the World Cup Qualifier coming up in Santiago, getting in as much training and preparation as I could before flying out to Chile. I’ve come a long way since having hip surgery last December, and I wanted to commit myself fully to the team. My employers have been very understanding and I will be able to focus on beginning my new job once I get back from the tournament.”
Forrest added; “It’s massively important for me to have made the squad for the World Cup Qualifier. I missed out on playing at the Celtic Cup, and with competition for first team places getting tougher, I wanted to make myself fully available for this tournament and make a return to playing regularly for the national side. I have the Commonwealth Games in Delhi later this year to think about too, so it’s great that I’ve been able to put things on hold temporarily and focus on my performances for Scotland.”
As well as making sacrifices in her career outside of hockey, Forrest has also undergone months of rehab and physiotherapy following surgery on a hip injury in December, in order to make herself fit and available for selection.
“I have a debt of gratitude to the medics and physios at the sportscotland Institute of Sport. They worked extremely hard with me to complete the rehabilitation programme and there has been a real team effort to get myself fit and ready to represent Scotland. I’m back playing well with Milne Craig Western so I can’t thank them enough.”
The Scots will face a challenging schedule when they finally reach Santiago, starting with the first match against Ireland on Thursday. The International Hockey Federation (FHI) have altered the fixture schedule to accommodate the travel difficulties experienced by the teams in reaching Chile, meaning the Scots will play four games on four consecutive days.
Commenting on the challenge ahead, Forrest said, “It’s a tough schedule, what with four games in four days now, but we’re confident we can get the results against Ireland, Malaysia and Chile. Australia will be tough, but the team have been playing well, there’s a great team atmosphere, and everyone is committed to getting Scotland to the World Cup.”
The Scots face four fixtures against Ireland, Malaysia, the hosts Chile, and the favourites Australia during the BDO World Cup Qualifier.
