Stewart driven to repay Saints' faith after “two years of turmoil”

Perhaps it’s only now, sitting down in a small meeting room at Staplewood to discuss his injuries in depth, that he can properly process the extent of what he’s been through.

The emotions visibly build up over the course of the 25-minute conversation. “I’m trying not to swear in this,” he says, but few could blame him for cursing his luck.

It’s important to start Stewart’s story not at the beginning, but at its apex: the 2022 League One play-off final.

This was the striker’s 53rd appearance of the season. He had not just played, but started all 46 of Sunderland’s league games, and the three play-off fixtures, scoring the winner in the first leg of the semi-final against Sheffield Wednesday in front of more than 44,000 fans at the Stadium of the Light.

The last of his 26 goals for the season came at Wembley, signing off a promotion-winning campaign for his club by sealing a 2-0 win over Wycombe in the play-off final.

Receiving the ball on the centre of the 18-yard line, Stewart took a touch to control with his left, instantly shifted it to his right and, as his marker stepped across to block his ensuing shot, cleverly reversed an angled drive through the defender’s legs to leave the goalkeeper deceived and the scorer, with No 14 on his back, halfway to the corner flag in celebration before the ball nestled neatly in the net.

“I was probably feeling the best I’ve felt,” he reflects, two weeks shy of the final’s third anniversary. “Obviously at that point it was the highest level I’d played at, definitely the biggest club I’d played for.

“To play in a game of that magnitude, score a goal and be involved in a winning team, with the celebrations and everything that comes with that, it’s memories that will live with me for the rest of my life.

“The way that play-off final went was the cherry on the cake for me that season with how well I was doing. Finishing like that I thought really put me in good stead to kick on in my career.”

Things got even better after that. As proud as he remains of his 26-goal season, scoring at Wembley and winning promotion, “the pinnacle”, he says, arrived 18 days later.

Having earned his first Scotland call-up in March, he made his international debut in June of that same year, coming on as a late substitute against Armenia at Hampden Park.

Stewart's proudest moment: making his Scotland debut in June 2022

Three days later he played again, against the Republic of Ireland. Three years later, he wonders when, or if, the third cap will ever come.

As durable as any centre-forward in the Football League at the time, Stewart’s injury nightmare began after a flying start to his debut season in the Championship; the on-song Scot had five goals in August alone when he broke down in the warm-up at Middlesbrough.

“Literally five minutes before kick-off, just finishing a shooting drill, as you do,” he recalls. “I’ve hit a side-foot shot and felt a pop in my quad, so I went running down the tunnel, two or three minutes until kick-off. We’re testing it, but just before I went out I tried to flex it and I had nothing.”

Stewart was not too concerned at the time – he could still run, as he points out – but a scan the following day revealed the extent of an injury that would keep him sidelined for four months.

To his enormous credit, the striker returned as sharp as ever. He scored 14 minutes into his comeback game at Hull, shortly before Christmas, and couldn’t stop. It would take Russell Martin’s Swansea side to halt Stewart’s scoring streak of six consecutive matches.

Football has a perverse habit of bringing those at the peak of their powers crashing back down to earth, and Stewart’s second injury is the one he still ranks as the worst. He’s never been able to rediscover his form or fitness since.

“I knew quickly that wasn’t a good one. It was horrible,” he screws his face up as he reminds himself of the pain. “About 20 minutes in, I went to push off to run and that was the Achilles – it just went.”

This was Fulham away in the FA Cup fourth round, 28th January 2023. He didn’t know it at the time, but it would be Stewart’s last game for Sunderland.

“That was a really tough injury, mentally. I’ve had a few bad ones, but the Achilles just inhibits your life more than anything.”

Stewart describes how he had to learn to walk again at 26 years old, from wearing a protective boot for two months, progressing to minor toe movements and flexion of the foot before even contemplating standing up, never mind sprinting past defenders.

“Mentally, that was the one that probably gave me the darkest days,” he confesses.

The Achilles injury that scuppered Stewart's momentum

He’s grateful to Saints, and to Martin, whose Swansea side had just kept him out, for signing him seven months later as his rehabilitation period neared its conclusion. It gave him a boost to still be coveted by a club with Premier League ambitions, even in his darkest days.

“I’m really thankful for that,” he says. “At the time that I came down I wasn’t too far away, but with the type of club and how Russell was, it wasn’t a rush. He said, ‘take extra time’, which I thought was only going to benefit me.”

Martin and Stewart were determined to leave no stone unturned. His debut arrived in November, 10 weeks after signing and nine and a half months since the initial injury at Craven Cottage.

But after seven minutes on the pitch against West Brom, disaster struck on his second Saints appearance, at Huddersfield.

“I took the ball in and just tried to ride a tackle – it’s your second game back and you’re maybe trying to avoid taking contact – but in doing that I planted, straight legged, with my body leaning forward, which is never good, and the hamstring goes.”

A fresh start: Signing for Saints on transfer deadline day, 1st September 2023

Saints tried Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) treatment, which involved a small amount of blood being drawn from Stewart’s body and injected back in to help heal the injured tissue.

It was unsuccessful, leaving Stewart flying out to Finland on Boxing Day for an operation. With a four-month recovery time from there, a predicted 10-12-week injury would keep the striker sidelined until May, having played just 17 minutes of Saints’ season.

He did return in time for the final game of the regular campaign, at Leeds, and nearly scored in the first leg of the play-off semi-final against West Brom, but Stewart reveals he then suffered a calf problem ahead of the second leg. Whilst he was named on the bench for the final in the event of an emergency, he was “not really fit” to contribute.

Threatening to break the deadlock in the play-off semi-final first leg at The Hawthorns

In theory, his big-money move from the North East to the south coast had paid off for Saints and Stewart alike. Ultimately, both achieved their target of reaching the Premier League in their first season together.

But this was not the same Wembley sensation as the one he experienced in the red and white stripes of Sunderland two years prior.

“It doesn’t take away the good feeling, the excitement and the happiness you’ve got for the dressing room, your teammates, the staff – that’s still there. But knowing you’ve not played as much of a part as you would’ve liked, or as I played in the other one, without doubt brings a different feeling.

“I wouldn’t go as far as ‘an outsider’, but you’ve played a bit part rather than a full part, and it doesn’t bring on the same emotion.

“You still enjoy it – great celebrations, the same as Sunderland, and you’re still a part of it. But probably in your head, personally, it didn’t resonate as much as the other one, but that’s for reasons that are understandable.”

Left to right: David Brooks, Joe Lumley (standing), Ryan Manning, James Bree and Stewart celebrate Saints' Wembley triumph

Stewart, whether he felt like he deserved it or not, had realised his dream of playing in the Premier League.

Growing up on the west coast of Scotland, just 30 miles from Glasgow, he was a goalscorer from the start. “The feeling never lessens,” he grins. “That’s what I grew up doing and will try to continue doing in my career.” He briefly played as a defender but didn’t get the same buzz. “That quickly didn’t turn into anything,” he says, dismissively.

Surprisingly, given his proximity to Old Firm giants Celtic and Rangers, Stewart “was not really brought up supporting a Scottish team”, but still an avid football watcher as a boy.

Instead he had a fascination with the Premier League, falling for English football in the mid-2000s. Whilst José Mourinho shattered records in his first season with Chelsea, Sir Alex Ferguson was rebuilding Manchester United with young starlets Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, and Steven Gerrard was inspiring Liverpool to European glory against the odds, it was Arsenal that captured the heart of a young Scot.

“Thierry Henry was my footballing idol,” he states. “He was the one that got me falling in love with the game, the one that I always looked at. Whenever Arsenal were on the telly, he was always the one that I was watching. From that kind of Premier League era, that was always the temptation: to go to England.”

Thierry Henry, Stewart's childhood hero, cast in bronze outside the Emirates Stadium

Stewart admits he was more loyal to Henry than the Gunners: “When he went to Barcelona I probably stuck with Barca a wee bit. I had all the Arsenal ‘Henry 14’ shirts growing up. He was just my player, my idol. Obviously I’m a striker, so that was that.”

Suddenly the No 14 on the back of his Sunderland shirt at Wembley makes sense.

Whilst winning promotion with Saints was not done the way he had imagined, the chance to play on the same stage as his hero was everything Stewart had strived for; a reward for the Achilles agony, the tedious toe raises and the unproductive PRP.

“It’s the league you grew up watching as a kid and wanted to be part of, and you’re going to be part of it. That brings a lot of happiness and satisfaction at the same time – even for someone like me, ‘I’ve got to this level of my career with my journey.’”

Last summer felt like a clean slate, but problems kept coming. The calf issue wouldn’t go away – Stewart admits maybe he was too eager to play in the Premier League, but you can tell he’s just overanalysing it all, trying to find reasons for the “constant setbacks”.

“I’ve spoken to enough people to try and find the answer, but the problem is there’s probably not a factual answer out there,” he shrugs. This is a player who was almost entirely injury-free until the age of 26, remember. “Maybe I have been guilty of trying too many different ways [to recover], and that’s been a factor, but you only do these things with good intentions.”

Spot on at Goodison Park in the Carabao Cup

He did find some momentum in early autumn, making his Premier League debut against Manchester United in September, and scoring from the penalty spot as Saints progressed past Everton in a Goodison Park shootout in the Carabao Cup.

After four substitute appearances, the striker was brimming with anticipation for his first Saints start – Arsenal away, of all places, where a statue of Thierry Henry sits outside the stadium in his signature knee-slide pose. It’s the same way Stewart celebrated at Wembley.

“Just the excitement of finding out the day before that I was going to start at the Emirates,” he smiles. “I’d been back for a month or so then, so it was just excitement – really looking forward to the game.”

Midway through the first half, Stewart’s dream turned into a nightmare. “It just epitomised how the last couple of years have been.” The smile turns rueful.

“I make a run to try and receive a pass and feel my quad go again – not the same one as two years ago, but the right quad. At that point your head is spinning.

“You walk down the tunnel and you’re just sitting, icing your quad, and there’s so many thoughts. ‘It can’t keep happening’, even ‘how many times can you cope with it happening?’ Your head’s in a spiral.”

Stewart's first Saints start ends in desolation at Arsenal

His latest period of rehabilitation was disrupted by an Achilles problem – not the same one as before – adding an extra “three or four months” to his absence.

Stewart hopes this is it now. Speaking to him after his first St Mary’s start, against Fulham, brings mixed emotions.

“It highlights just how bad a time it’s been for me,” he says, reluctant to take credit for the milestone moment he wishes had come 18 months earlier, “but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I’m really appreciative of the reception I got from the fans at the start, and going off, and I want to build on that.

“Getting a taste for it just makes you want it more. I feel like it’s probably the best I’ve felt in a long time, and I can just keep building between now and the end of the season and get myself in a really good place for next season.”

Injury-free again, Stewart gets stuck in on his first St Mary's start

Stewart states his gratitude to his family and his girlfriend for being by his side through it all, to the teammates who have kept him smiling and to the physios who have worked tirelessly to piece his body back together.

It feels insensitive, given the mental and physical torture he’s been subjected to, to finish by asking if he feels like he owes something to Southampton, the club that believed in him through his darkest days, and to the fans who continue to encourage him, willing to see the same player that took the Championship by storm with 11 goals in 15 games before his injury nightmare began.

But Stewart doesn’t baulk at the question. He embraces it.

“One hundred per cent. I signed for this club to come down and play games of football for this club. To not do that anywhere near as much as I would want to, you do, at times, feel – not as much as a fraud – but it’s not what you do.

“This club has really helped me, tried to do everything to get myself fit, and I do owe the club so much – my teammates with how good they’ve been, the staff, everybody. Obviously there have been two managers as well. I just want to play, I want to try and show the fans what I can do.

Feeling the love from the Saints support

“It’s what I signed to do, it’s what I’ve tried to do my full career, but it’s been difficult for me as well – having a shot at the Premier League and not really getting the fair chance that I wanted with the fitness side of things.

“I’ll certainly be doing everything I can next season to get this club back in the Premier League, because it’s a Premier League club, the fans deserve that and that’s where I want to be playing my football as well.”

Now Stewart just hopes to look forward, not back, in pursuit of reliving his promotion-winning memories in another set of red and white stripes, and fighting off his injury curse once and for all.

“I would always hear when I was younger the older boys saying, ‘it’s tough to get injured’. You’re never too sure, but what I’ve had the last three years I totally resonate with it. You’re just doing rehab in the gym or a bit part in training, you don’t really feel like a footballer.

“The hardest part is constantly trying everything through those two years to try and be fit, but nothing seemed to work. Hopefully that’s the last of them.”

This interview was first published inside SAINTS, the matchday programme, for the recent home game against Manchester City. The club publication can be purchased online, including back issues, while key sections, such as the feature interviews, are available to listen to on Spotify.