Billy Gilmour is no Scotland kid anymore as Toni Kroos set to learn what Luka Modric couldn't

Billy Gilmour had just enjoyed the greatest game of his fledgling career.

To the watching world, that night at Wembley three years ago was the launchpad that would inevitably blast him towards football’s stratosphere. But after the dizzying high of dominating England’s midfield under their own arch in his first ever Scotland start, came a crash landing at rock bottom the following morning when a positive Covid test meant his Euros was over.

Gilmour, who had only just turned 20, was told by the medics to leave Scotland’s team hotel without so much as saying goodbye. He wasn’t even permitted to pick up his boots and lucky, personalised shin-guards from the kit room. Mementoes of a magical moment which remain missing to this day. He drove home alone to his London apartment and locked himself inside for 10 days, enduring the very tournament which was supposed to mark his coming of age. And watching the wizardly Luca Modric – a boyhood idol – hypnotise the very midfield he ought to have been starring in.

Sometimes the word “ouch” just doesn’t get remotely close. Which is why he intends to make the most of what is about to come his way here in Germany over the next few weeks and to ensure Euro 2024 is remembered as his very own relaunch.

“All I remember is watching the Croatia game in my room, not being able to do anything,” Gilmour said with a wince yesterday as he took his turn at performing media duties here in Scotland’s Garmisch- Partenkirchen base camp. I had to go straight to my house. I had my car so I had to drive straight there, no stops. That was isolation for 10 days.

“I felt fine, it was just the test meant I couldn’t do anything. At first I had been happy just to be part of the 26-man squad. I hadn’t featured at all for Scotland before then.

“I wanted to gain experience so to find out I was starting against England, of course I was shocked, I was nervous. But after the game I felt really relaxed – I really felt I was part of the squad – so to wake up the next morning and get told I had Covid was not ideal.”

Not ideal? Those words don’t come any closer to describing the sheer brutality of it all. But Gilmour continued: “After the England game I knew I could have had a chance of playing another game or playing a part in the game, and especially to go up against Modric.

Mateo Kovacic was playing in that game as well. That did hurt a bit but I simply couldn’t do anything about it. I had to pack in the morning and I left my boots and shin-guards with the kitman.

“I don’t know if he flogged them but I’m still looking for them! On my shin-guards were pictures of my family and of me in a Scotland shirt. So I got them replaced with the same.

“I knew that I wouldn’t be back in camp. You can’t do anything with Covid. I even asked to get a bike but that wasn’t allowed. You have to just sit there and wait 10 days.

“I had my neighbour making me food. I stayed in a top-level apartment in London and my neighbour below, who also knew my mum, would text her asking if I was OK. She would bring up lunch, breakfast and dinner and just leave it at my front door.”

Now here he is, back at the same stage and about to go head-to-head with another one of the midfield technicians he admires above all others. Toni Kroos may be about to complete his journey through the stars at this tournament. But Gilmour doesn’t plan on giving the German playmaker a soft landing.

On the contrary, he wants one of his all-time heroes to recognise a young player moving upwards in the opposite direction. He said: “Yes, of course. You need to have a little bit of that confidence.

“Kroos is a top player, he has won everything in the game. He has now retired from Real Madrid at the top and he is still unbelievable.

“So if I do get the chance to play against him I’ll be buzzing. People always look at me – maybe because of my height and stature – and think, ‘He’s just a small boy, only a kid.’ I get that a lot.

“It’s not something that annoys me. It’s just that I am not a young kid now. I have been in the game a good while and I know my place.”

In truth, he always has – right from his early days bursting on to the scene as a teenage sensation at Chelsea in the cut-throat Premier League. Gilmour has never once doubted his ability to take on the big boys and that same core belief could come in handy in Munich tomorrow night.

He nodded: “Definitely. I have confidence when I go on to the pitch and I try to believe we are the best players out there. You have to be confident in that way.

“Of course you are going to be nervous, everyone has nerves before games. I still do. But go out there, get a few touches of the ball, settle myself into the game and grow into it.

“After that, you are already there. If you figure it out too late, it has passed.”

And part of the plan to stop Kroos doing to Scotland what his little Real Madrid mate Modric did three years ago at Hampden is to make sure he doesn’t get anywhere near as much of the ball as the Croat did that night. In order to do that, Scotland have to keep it among themselves for prolonged periods. Which is precisely where Gilmour comes in, along with Celtic skipper Callum McGregor.

Gilmour, now firmly established at Brighton, added: “I think that will be the aim for us. We know we are strong in games when we play football and keep the ball.

“When we have it, they can’t score. So it’s probably the best thing for us to do. We will go out there against Germany, give it our all and hopefully try to win.”