St Mirren's captain Jane O'Toole has said it was 'instinct' to hit her dislocated kneecap back into place during a Scottish Championship match.

A video of the gruesome injury went viral last week as O'Toole went on to play the rest of the match against Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

She said: “It was just a 50-50 challenge and I won the ball, but I knew straight away the kneecap had come out.

“I didn’t really think, to be honest, it was just instinct. I knew it needed to be put back in because it happened to me before when I was playing for Motherwell in 2014 and that is what the paramedics had done.

“I didn’t know how to do it, but I do now. I could do it myself again. There were no paramedics there, we’d had to wait for an ambulance the last time, it had to be done. What was I supposed to do? 

“The pain is pretty bad, if anything you get some relief when it goes back in. When it’s out, it’s excruciating, you just want to get it back in place as quickly as possible. I’ve always had a high pain threshold, but this is something else. I was in agony. 

“I hit it twice and it wasn’t budging. I think it was the third punch that I got it back where it should be. I gave it a few more slaps just to make sure. It was a bit tender, but it felt better," she told The Telegraph.

She added that as captain she felt she had to remain on the field.

“I wanted to carry on, I knew I was needed on the field and being the captain, I need to set an example. It’s just the mentality of the women’s game, you just get up and get on with it. 

"Coming off never crossed my mind. We had subs, but I’m the captain, I’m not letting the side down, no way.

“The game wasn’t going well, we were losing 6-0, but we only lost 7-0 so I must have done OK after that. It’s my job as captain to set an example. I don’t see it anything more than that.”