Scotland defender Ryan Porteous says having to cope with the fallout from his sending-off towards Germany in Euro 2024 was the “hardest thing I’ve had to go through in my career.”
Porteous was proven a straight crimson card following a Video Assistant Referee evaluate in Scotland’s opening group sport towards the hosts for a crunching sort out on Ilkay Gundogan that resulted in a penalty transformed by Kai Havertz as Steve Clarke’s aspect had been thrashed 5-1 in Munich.
And the Watford centre-back has spoken to Sky Sports News in an unique interview concerning the fallout from the incident in Germany.
“It was obviously really tough, probably the hardest thing I’ve had to go through personally,” he stated.
“When you are away at the Euros, then you cannot really think too much about yourself, you still have a pretty big job to do for the team, you can’t be sulking or feeling sorry for yourself, you have to help the boys.”
Porteous was suspended by UEFA for Scotland’s remaining two group-stage video games, but it surely was solely when the 25-year-old returned house from the event that the fallout from his crimson card hit him.
“I thought I did that to the best I could, but when you leave the camp, that is when it hits you,” he stated.
“But I have a lot of good people around me and they looked after me well. I feel like I am in a much better place now, but it was really tough.
It is an expertise, nevertheless, that Porteous believes he can be taught from going ahead and one which different gamers can do too.
“A lot of disappointment. It is one of those things. It is hard to excuse anything, but at the same time it is gutting for everybody who was there and for the fans there as well, but it was an experience I have to learn from,” he stated.
“I wanted to come back to work straight away because you are not going to feel better by sulking or feeling sorry for yourself, you are going to get back by reacting and I think I’ve shown I can bounce back from adversity a lot before and I will do that again,” Porteous added.
“I’ve trained myself to deal with that [reaction] quite a long time ago and to not look at that, that has been a big asset for me and if I had any advice for young people coming through, it would be not to look at your phone and social media, it can only benefit you.”
As for Scotland, Porteous feels that regardless of their early exit from Euro 2024, the workforce mustn’t simply accept qualifying for tournaments and should now bounce again of their upcoming Nations League marketing campaign, after they face the likes of Croatia, Poland and Portugal in League A.
“You want the manager to back you. He is the type of gaffer who will never chuck you under the bus, he was always going to back you and that was a positive,” he stated.
“It was more about dealing with it myself and looking at it from a personal point of view, rather than have anyone sticking up for you, you have to deal with it yourself.
“We have set a really high standard over the course of the last three or four years, and we have to live up to that – we cannot be a squad that just settled for going to tournaments, although it was fantastic for the nation and it showed how much it meant getting there, but it was so disappointing not reaching that next level, but as a group we have to bounce back and go again.”