Ross County defender Will Nightingale ready to play a part in the Staggies post-split fixtures after “worst season” of his career

Will Nightingale admits his injury troubles have made this season the worst season of his professional career.

The Ross County defender has spent the vast majority of the campaign watching from the sidelines, having only made four appearances in 2024/25 – the most recent of which came in the Staggies’ 6-0 defeat to Rangers in August.

He has at least returned to matchday squads in recent weeks, featuring on the substitutes’ bench against Aberdeen at the beginning of April.

It has been quite the difference from what Nightingale is used to, though, as across his previous four seasons with Ross County and Wimbledon he made an average of 32 appearances per year.

That has led to a nightmare 12 months for the centre back, but he acknowledges that trying to rush back from injury at the start of the season potentially made things worse than they needed to be.

“This has probably been my worst season as a professional footballer really,” he said.

“I think I managed to get in more games when I was 17, so it has been frustrating. It’s a lonely place really, and it can get quite dark.

“To be honest, it was from the very beginning of the season. I wasn’t fully honest with myself – I had my four weeks off with complete rest over the off-season, and then unfortunately my foot got stuck in the ground on the training pitch.

“At the start of the season, the pitches can be dry, and it was a bit of a freak accident. I was instructed to rest for six to eight weeks, and I rested for four.

“I was desperate to be back, and I was asked if I was ready so I said yes because I wanted to play, but if I’m honest with myself I wasn’t 100 per cent right because I ended up doing more damage.

“It’s such a good club here, with honest, hard-working people, so when you’re around people like that you want to reflect that and be the same.

“It’s difficult when you can’t do that, so it was a tough time to get through, but I had great support from the staff, players and my family, and I’m thankful to be out of that now.”

Nightingale was able to return to training early in the calendar year, and now feels ready to play a part for Ross County in their post-split fixtures.

Ahead of his debut campaign in Scottish football last year, the concept of the split would have been a novel one for the defender, who had previously spent his entire career at Wimbledon.

He believes the split changes the atmosphere of matches, given teams can play each other up to four times in the league each year.

“I think the Northern Irish league does it as well, so it’s different to what I’m used to,” Nightingale added.

“It can make it interesting for fans, but for me the bigger difference is it being a 12-team league compared to the 24-team league that I’ve been used to.

“It feels like every game is more emotional in Scotland. With 24 teams, you can always find that reset button, whereas here you need to be able to stay calm and try not to get roped into the emotional side of the game.

“That’s a massive positive of the manager’s really, because not everybody has the capability to do that. Because he can stay calm, he can speak with logic and sense, and get his point across very well.

“That’s definitely a massive positive that not all managers – or people in life – can say they have.”

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