I made Rangers history on my debut before injury ruined my career – now my band is releasing our debut single

Tom Walsh made history when he became Rangers' youngest ever league debutant in 2012 - but after a serious injury he's now turned his focus to his other passion

Rangers fans are unlikely to remember much from a 0-0 stalemate with Stirling Albion at Ibrox back in 2012. Even though club history was made.

With Ally McCoist's side toiling in the Third Division clash, the Rangers boss turned to a youngster for a breakthrough - throwing on 16-year-old Tom Walsh as a late substitute for David Templeton. At 16 years and 150 days, the winger would become the youngest man to ever play a league match for the Light Blues - a record only broken by Bailey Rice in 2023 - and the second youngest Gers debutant ever, behind Derek Ferguson.

Walsh would go on to play a further 14 times for Rangers over the next five years, with his stint punctuated by loan spells with Stenhousemuir, Dumbarton and St Mirren before a permanent switch to Irish football with Limerick. After a short spell across the Irish Sea he returned to Dumbarton, before two stints at Inverness Caledonian Thistle sandwiching a spell at Ayr United.

But disaster struck in August 2022 as Walsh suffered a cruciate ligament injury against Morton that forced him to have two surgeries - and left him fearing he'd never be able to kick a ball again. During that time, he turned to his other love to keep his spirits high - music.

Speaking to the Inverness Courier in 2024 Walsh said: "It's important to keep your brain occupied no matter what it is you're doing – whether that's exercising in other ways, working or whatever your hobbies are. I'm into my music, so me and my mates have been jamming and playing, and stuff like that has been a great help because I've been able to get stuck in to something else.

"Keeping your mind occupied is the biggest thing, and all these things have helped me do that." Having not kicked a ball professionally for almost three years, the 28-year-old is now preparing to launch his debut single with his band Heavy Heads on March 7.

Posting on social media, Walsh said: "Our first song, Sam is out on Spotify this Friday coming, March 7. Give us a follow, like or share if you fancy and hopefully you’ll enjoy the tunes."

The toll of the serious injury meanwhile left Walsh fearing he'd never be able to kick a ball again, let alone return to professional football. He said: "It's the kind of injury you never think you'll get. "You hear stories about folk who get bad injuries and never play again, and as a young guy coming through you listen but you never think it will be you. Then it happens.

"Even just kicking a ball in the back garden with my nieces and nephews was really difficult. I wasn't able to do that for the first year. I don't have kids just now, but in the future I want to, so that went through my mind too – being able to kick the ball now means I'll be able to do that in the future."