The 19-year-old full-back was struck down with a hamstring issue early into the City of Glasgow Cup final at Ibrox in May, sparking a prolonged period of rehabilitation, setbacks and mental adversity for a player who represented Scotland Under-19s last term.
Speaking exclusively to the official Rangers website, the youngster opened up on the first long-term injury absence of his fledgling career: “The injury happened in the Glasgow Cup final against Celtic, so it was a big game to get injured just 30 seconds into.
“The feeling at the time was that I had never experienced anything like it because I’ve never suffered a hamstring injury. It wasn’t a good feeling walking off the pitch so early into a game.
“Having to travel down to London to visit specialists and determine whether I needed an operation was quite hard to take, especially with it being so close to the end of last season and I was hoping to have a big start to this current campaign.
“It’s been the worst and the longest injury that I’ve experienced. I’ve had a few back issues in my career, but nothing really major and on the scale of being out for 16 weeks.”
Although the physical toll of injuries on players is well-documented, the mental challenge which it poses can be equally as tormenting.
It is a feeling that Harkness became all too familiar with as his teammates hit the ground running over pre-season, although he is grateful for attention and care that he received from the excellent medical department at the Rangers Training Centre.
He continued: “It didn’t really have a mental impact to start with because we were at the end of the season and we didn’t have any games left, but it was hard to take over the summer when the boys are either off, or they’re coming back in and playing pre-season matches, especially when I can’t compete in the games because I’m not fit enough.
“I was in the whole summer doing a lot of rehab with physios such as Stevie Walker and Tara Harvey, both of whom have played a big part. It was mainly about thinking what I could improve during the time that I was injured.
“You don’t realise how important the physios are. Stevie was also in the full summer looking after me. He’s been really patient because I’ve been on the pitch, feeling it slightly, then back off the pitch. All the physios have played a big role in my recovery.”
The full-back was slated to return to the pitch during the B Team’s pre-season tour of Northern Ireland in July, but his hopes were quickly dashed when he suffered a setback in training less than 24 hours before a clash with Bangor.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Harkness, who was determined to make a return to the pitch in some capacity ahead of the start of the competitive campaign.
He added: “I got injured again in training the day before I was supposed to play my first game. It was probably the saddest that I’ve been in a while.
“I spoke about to David McCallum and Calum MacMaster [lead performance coach] about it. They asked if I had told my girlfriend and I replied that I did, but I just text her saying ‘don’t ask any questions’ because I didn’t want her to ask me anything more about it.
“I was rooming with James Graham on the trip and he looked after me, but it was just the fact that I had been out for so long and I was supposed to make my comeback the very next day that was the hardest to take.”
The experience has certainly steeled the 19-year-old for future challenges, while he insists that it has served as a much-needed reminder about the importance of both preparation and recovery outwith the 90 minutes on the pitch.
He added: “It’s about building fitness for me now and making sure it doesn’t happen again. I just can’t wait to be back to normality.
“The biggest take away is that if it’s going to be a long time spent out, focus on what you can improve while the part is impacted. I now need to do more when the squad are doing their pre-training prep, and after matches as well, so it doesn’t flare up again.
“I’ll now make sure that I do more prep than the rest of the squad, as well as the aspect of recovery after training and matches, and take that a lot more seriously.”
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