{"id":255678,"date":"2025-11-10T22:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/255678\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T22:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T22:25:14","slug":"grant-hanley-on-his-battle-to-earn-hibs-career-revival-as-grit-and-determination-pays-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/255678\/","title":{"rendered":"Grant Hanley on his battle to earn Hibs career revival as ‘grit and determination’ pays off"},"content":{"rendered":"

Easter Road ace a hero for club and country having worked through difficult moments in the summer<\/p>\n

18:30, 10 Nov 2025Updated 20:15, 10 Nov 2025<\/p>\n

Grant Hanley(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Grant Hanley reckons lonely summer slogs were worth it for Hibs highs and Scotland<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n

The defender is savouring life at Easter Road having pushed through more tough moments before getting to Leith.<\/p>\n

Hanley heads into his country\u2019s World Cup crunches against Greece and Denmar<\/a>k with excellent form and fitness having fully grasped the opportunity afforded by Hibs gaffer David Gray<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So far, it\u2019s going just as he would have hoped as he refused to lose motivation and remained driven to earn and capitalise on such an impressive move.<\/p>\n

Hanley battled back from serious Achilles\u2019 tendon surgery two years ago to play at Norwich and Birmingham, but became a free agent after helping the Blues return to the Championship.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old admits the time of uncertainty was gruelling, but he stayed dedicated to his work and his graft ensured he was ready for the Hibs<\/a> shot.<\/p>\n

Coming through just heightens the good days as he said: \u201cOf course. And there was a period of time this summer where I was out of contract and there were days where you\u2019re going running yourself and things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s difficult to get yourself going, but it takes real grit and determination to take yourself through that and put yourself in a position where you\u2019re fit enough to come into a team like this where the competition\u2019s so high in every position. That\u2019s the reason you work so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Proving critics wrong doesn\u2019t matter as he continued: \u201cThat\u2019s never really been my motivation, never really the angle that I would look at.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reality is there\u2019s only a few people whose opinions really matter and I\u2019m one of them. And as long as I\u2019m happy with everything I\u2019ve done and how I\u2019ve performed, then I can sleep at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GrantGrant Hanley<\/p>\n

National coach Steve Clarke has never lost sleep over the ability of his centre-back at any stage of his reign and he gets his stalwart back for the matches against Greece and Denmark in peak form.<\/p>\n

Hanley stays grounded as ever, but said: \u201cAs a professional, you make sure you\u2019re prepared as best you can be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I was going into it feeling any different than I have previously because I always did as much as I could to get myself right.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably the longest since I ruptured my achilles two and a half years ago. It’s definitely the longest run of games, which is clearly a positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter an injury like that, at the age I was, it\u2019s difficult to get yourself going. There\u2019s been some difficult moments, moments that have been really difficult to push through.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut here and now I\u2019m so glad I did. I\u2019m really enjoying my football and I\u2019m playing regularly for a couple of massive teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot to come up and play in a country that I\u2019ve been called up for. The plan was to come and play for a massive club, which I\u2019m doing, and also keep my international career going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m more than aware of what football\u2019s like. I\u2019ve had enough tough moments and periods where it\u2019s been difficult.<\/p>\n

“I know it\u2019s important to keep yourself level. I don\u2019t think too far ahead of myself. It\u2019s about the fine details that go into it every day that are so important.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll meet up with Scotland and I\u2019m looking forward to it. It\u2019s always in your mind, always something you\u2019re looking forward to, especially this period when you\u2019ve got so many international windows coming so quickly. \u201cIt feels like the next one rolls around pretty quickly. Massive for Scotland. We\u2019re going to Turkey first for a camp to prepare.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever we do with Scotland, it\u2019s always an honour to go away and I\u2019m really looking forward to it.<\/p>\n

\"GrantGrant Hanley celebrates with Hibs pal Rocky Bushiri<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was obviously a big part of coming to a club like this. But the reality is you\u2019ve got to get yourself on the pitch, you\u2019ve got to get minutes and you\u2019ve got to play well. Otherwise, the national team wouldn\u2019t be a thing. \u201cThere\u2019s too many good players trying to get your place. But it\u2019s going to plan so far. It\u2019s up to me to keep performances up and stay fit and, hopefully, that can last as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hibs\u2019 weekend win in Paisley kept them third in the table and Hanley said: \u201cIn football there are times when you feel like you don\u2019t get what you deserve at times. It\u2019s up to us on the pitch to go and take that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely been room for us to improve this season so far. There\u2019s a long way to go, but we\u2019ll take this one as a positive and keep the build.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose results are satisfying because there have been times where we feel we\u2019ve conceded goals at poor times or maybe even soft goals. So you prize the clean sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Easter Road ace a hero for club and country having worked through difficult moments in the summer 18:30,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[14337,218,13718,2818,101,58034,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-255678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-david-gray","tag-football","tag-hibernian-fc","tag-scotland-football-team","tag-sports","tag-steve-clarke","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}