Former Hearts youngster still has 'bone out of place' after challenge from Celtic's Scott Brown in 2018

The former Hearts youngster, who was 16 at the time, was hospitalised after being flattened by the Celtic captain during a tussle at Parkhead in January 2018.

It came after Cochrane had outshone the Hoops midfielder in a man-of-the-match performance at Tynecastle to end Celtic’s 69-match unbeaten run under Brendan Rodgers the previous month.

Cochrane, who quit Hearts at the end of the season in order to pursue first team football elsewhere, feared he had suffered a serious neck injury in the clash, but has been left with a displaced collar bone.

The 20-year-old told the Athletic: "Levein used to say to me, ‘He’ll try to get in your head. Don’t let him’.

"People do that, and I’ve tried it before, but it doesn’t work for me with my smiley face and these teeth.

"My collar bone is still out of place from that – it sticks out more.

"I was on the ground when they scored and I was thinking I had broken my neck as it went into a spasm. It was the scariest moment of my life.

"I got put on the bed and the nurses put two big weights either side of my head and said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t move your head’.

"It was about four or five hours from it happening until I got out of the hospital at 2am.

"I had my phone in my hand at that point and I dropped it straight onto my face.

"I was nearly crying. It felt like I couldn’t do anything right."

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