Aaron Hickey: Brentford & Scotland defender’s long-awaited return

Getting through such a spell out takes great mental strength, attitude, and patience.

And Craig Levein, who worked with Hickey at Hearts, has pleaded for the latter. He has absolutely no doubt, however, that the lad he had at Tynecastle as a teenager has the resilience to come back better than ever.

One story from the Scottish Cup final defeat to Celtic in 2019 gives a good insight into how unfazed Hickey, just 16 at the time, was by the size of the challenge.

“We were on the bus through to Glasgow,” Levein recalled, “and somebody brought it to my attention that I should take a look at the back of the bus. So I walked up and there was Aaron lying sleeping. Which I thought summed it all up. He’s got the biggest thing in his life.

“That just demonstrated that he wasn’t fazed by what was about to happen. And he played really well in the match, to be fair, he was excellent. It was great to see him move on to Bologna and do extremely well there. He was the torch-bearer for Scots in Italian football really.”

Then came the move to Brentford, where he was an instant success until injury stopped him in his tracks.

Up until then, he had made the right-back position his own in his debut season in England’s top flight when he played 26 times for the Bees in the 2022-23 campaign.

The past couple of years have tested him mentally and physically, but Pressley believes he’ll come back an even better player.

“He’s incredibly gifted in terms of being able to play off both feet,” he said.

“At times you wouldn’t even know which was his stronger foot. He’s a really good athlete and a modern-day fullback in the sense that he has the ability to go from the fullback position and invert into the ‘six’ position and play comfortably in the middle of the pitch.

“He has so many attributes. He just needs games and time and rhythm to regain that form.”