Riley McGree had two dreams within his grasp: playing in the Premier League and representing the Socceroos at a second FIFA World Cup. Then, in one cruel moment, his hamstring snapped and both were snatched away.
For as long as he could, he tried to delude himself into thinking he had actually lost nothing, until the reality of his heartbreak was no longer possible to deny.
“I was a little bit in denial, and convinced myself … what did I convince myself?” McGree tells this masthead.
“Probably that I was never going to go to the World Cup. You know what I mean? I almost convinced myself the World Cup wasn’t on; the play-off final, there wasn’t anything at stake in that game, that it just happened and it wasn’t a thing.
“It was only really until the national anthem of the Turkey game … I got pretty upset, and it hit me pretty hard.”
If there was a Ballon d’Or for misfortune, McGree would be on the shortlist. What happened to him in the final weeks of last season was almost too ridiculous to be true, but was perfectly in line with how his career has tracked since he starred at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
McGree has been beset by injuries over the past three years, costing him dozens of matches for Middlesbrough and repeatedly interrupting a career that seemed destined for the Premier League. But none was as cruelly timed as the hamstring tear at Wembley Stadium in the Championship play-off final on May 23, a match he would not have played in were it not for the spying scandal which engulfed English football.
Two weeks earlier, just before they met Southampton in the first leg of their play-off semi-final, McGree recalls Middlesbrough’s club photographer showing players a photo he had taken at training featuring a suspicious figure lurking in the background with a camera. It was the first indication that something was amiss, and the beginning of one of the biggest controversies in recent English football history, Spygate 2.0.
The suspicious figure was an analyst sent to Boro’s training grounds by Southampton manager Tonda Eckert, and revelations followed that this was not a one-off, but a pattern of behaviour. The two-legged semi-final unfolded while an English Football League investigation was ongoing; Southampton prevailed 2-1 on aggregate, but the saga left a bad taste in Boro’s mouths, and their manager Kim Hellberg accused them of cheating. McGree’s season was over, yet there remained a chance that if Southampton could be kicked out of the play-offs, they could be reinstated.
Boro continued to train in that hope, but McGree, who otherwise would have flown to the Socceroos’ pre-World Cup camp in Florida, was not optimistic. A few hours after the EFL’s disciplinary committee hearing, he was sitting on his couch with his partner when the news filtered through via the team’s group chat: Southampton were expelled from the play-offs and Boro would replace them in the final against Hull City.
Suddenly, McGree had a game to prepare for – and not any old game, but the one known as the richest in English football.
“It was honestly unbelievable. I was shocked, in pure shock, and really taken aback by it – and then we had like three days to prepare,” he said.
Socceroos coach Tony Popovic, his staff and some players who had already arrived in camp were watching the game from Florida, eager to see one of the national team’s most important players reach the promised land of the Premier League. It was scoreless when, with about 15 minutes left, much to their horror, McGree’s hamstring gave way as he overextended his leg.
He knew it was a bad one, straight away.
“Sure enough, it was as bad as it could have gotten,” he says.
McGree sometimes ponders the alternate universe in which he doesn’t go off injured. Perhaps they win. “I was playing decent, and I thought we were growing in the game,” he says. “I always wonder, like, if I … maybe that wouldn’t happen.”
Instead, Hull City scored in the fifth minute of stoppage time to win promotion, Eckert escaped with a six-week suspended ban, and McGree had to come to terms with the implications of both the result and his injury, which ruled him out of the World Cup.
He had already organised for a family and friends group of 14 to travel to North America to watch him play for the Socceroos. After briefly contemplating a holiday in Europe to get away, he went anyway.
“Everyone was like, yeah, f— it, let’s do it. Why not?” he says.
For the first time, McGree experienced a World Cup as a supporter, discovering a different kind of emotional rollercoaster.
“As a player you can somewhat control the outcome of the game,” he says. “It’s like clockwork. You’re used to the emotions before a game, after a game. But it’s so unpredictable as a fan … you really are rooting, and you get nervous.”
The highlight of the trip was, however, being back inside the team’s inner sanctum.
Before Australia’s final group-stage fixture against Paraguay, in which they had to avoid defeat to secure their spot in the knockout round, Popovic asked McGree to address the team and deliver the final words they would hear before kick-off.
McGree spent the day rehearsing his speech, anxious to make the moment count – but when he stood in front of his teammates, almost everything he had prepared vanished.
“I got out about 10 per cent of that and then it just left my brain,” he says. “I completely forgot what I wanted to say, and then I just went off the cuff and spoke from the heart.”
It was not the World Cup campaign McGree had envisaged for himself – but he is only 27, which means there is no reason why he couldn’t regain his starting position for the Socceroos at the next World Cup in 2030, to be played in Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
McGree returned to the national team for the recent friendly series against Brazil, feels energised by the way a new generation of players – Nestory Irankunda, Alessandro Circati, Lucas Herrington et al – are driving Australia forward, and wants to be a part of it.
The best way to guarantee he will be is by taking the next step at club level.
McGree moved to Boro nearly five years ago, having turned down the opportunity to join Ange Postecoglou at Celtic in favour of chasing promotion to the Premier League. It hasn’t happened, but they’ve come close; in his first full season, they lost in the first round of the play-offs, then missed the cut by just four points in each of the next two campaigns. Last season was as close as they’ve gotten since Middlesbrough were last relegated from England’s top division in 2016-17.
Sitting top of the Championship with a quarter of the season completed, they look primed to contend again, with McGree having re-established himself as a key player, setting up two goals in a 5-1 win over Bolton last weekend which put them in first position. He is hopeful the worst of his injury problems are behind him, having thrown the proverbial “kitchen sink” at trying to understand why they kept recurring.
“The rehab was as smooth as could be and I’m feeling stronger and more powerful than I ever have,” he says.
McGree’s former coach at Boro, the embattled Manchester United manager Michael Carrick, is in no doubt that he is still Premier League material.
“I really enjoyed working with Riley,” Carrick tells this masthead.
“He’s just been really unfortunate with injuries, and some injuries at the wrong time. Picking that one up right at the end of the season, before the World Cup, was a huge hurdle for him, I’m sure.
“He’s got the ability to play in the Premier League, he just needs that little bit of luck. Hopefully this year with Middlesbrough, they can do that.”
McGree appreciates and shares Carrick’s belief, but is realistic about the opportunities that have slipped through his fingers. Remaining positive, he admits, can be a “daily battle”, but at the moment he is winning.
“I’d like to think that if I was fit, I may have had the opportunity by now to play in the Premier League, whether that be with Middlesbrough through promotion, or in a separate way,” he says.
“But that’s not reality, is it? The facts are the facts. I haven’t, and I’ve been injured and I’ve missed opportunities – but that doesn’t stop me from believing that I still can do that.
“I still strongly believe that I’m the best I’ve ever been. I still truly believe that I can be one of the best players in the Championship, and I truly believe that I can get promoted with Middlesbrough and we can get to the Premier League.”
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