How ex Rangers prospect coped with mental struggle of horror car accident after joining 'team full of winners'
The midfielder progressed through the youth ranks at Ibrox but left the club without making a single first team appearance
Former Rangers prospect Ben Williamson has confessed he found himself in a “bad place” a few months ago but has declared himself ready to return to football following a horror car crash in 2024.
The 24-year-old midfielder - a product of the Ibrox club’s youth academy - spent four years on the fringes of the Light Blues’ first-team but left the club without making a single first-team appearance.
During his time with the Govan giants, Williamson gained senior experience across five separate loan spells at Arbroath, Livingston, Raith Rovers, Dundee and Partick Thistle, before signing for Hamilton Accies on a permanent basis in January 2024.
However, his career was derailed just over a year ago after being left with the mental and physical scars of a serious car accident. Williamson was a passenger in his friends’ vehicle when it crashed in Dunfermline in December 2024.
Ex Rangers star opens up on mental torture of car accident
He counts himself lucky to be alive after suffering severe injuries, with the former Scotland youth international requiring surgery on broken leg and pelvis before setting out on a long road to recovery.
To make matters worse, crisis-hit Hamilton were then hit with a transfer embargo that prevented Williamson from renewing his contract when it expired in May 2025. The club continued to pay his wages as he carried out his rehabilitation, but left him unable to play first-team football.
Now he has moved across Lanarkshire to SPFL League Two title hopefuls East Kilbride where he hopes to relaunch his career.
Reflecting on his struggles over the past 12 months, Williamson told Lanarkshire Live Sport: “It has been horrible, to be honest. When all that stuff happened, I didn’t know if I could be normal again, never mind play football.
“But now I am back - it’s not that I took things for granted before - I want to go and prove myself and take things by storm at East Kilbride.
“When it (the accident) first happened, I was focusing so much on my physical recovery that you forget about the mental side. Once you are back moving a bit more, you realise everything that you have been through and you overthink everything.
“I was in a bad place a few months ago, but now I feel like I am stronger than ever and more determined to succeed. When I was at Hamilton, I loved the place. It was brilliant but what went on was out of my hands, it was mismanaged higher up, basically, and it was time to move on.
“I wasn’t registered as a player at Hamilton so I was like a free agent. I had some options and interest from elsewhere, but I only really had one choice in my head. I held off joining EK in December just to see what there was and not just rush into it.
“I spoke to a few clubs on the phone around Hamilton’s level, but ever since I spoke to Mick and Si (Ferry, the assistant boss), I saw their vision and how they want to play.”
Ben Williamson relishing fresh start at East Kilbride
Williamson’s decision to join Kilby has been a long time coming. Upon securing his services, boss Mick Kennedy confessed he won’t be able to hold on to his new recruit for long, given his experience at a higher level.
However, the player hasn’t ruled out extending his stay at K-Park into next season after agreeing a short-term deal until the summer as he looks to get back playing regularly again.
Explaining how the move came about, Williamson admitted: “I had just got back from my injury and I remember we played East Kilbride in the (Challenge) Cup last year and when I saw them play I realised: ‘Wow, this isn’t a League Two team.
“I could just tell by the slickness of the play and, ever since then, I was keen to join. I spoke to Mick at the start of December and I liked his vision. I liked the way he wanted to play. I liked the way he goes about things.
“I only trained on Tuesday, but from the one session I’ve had, I feel like East Kilbride isn’t a League Two team. I feel from what I’ve seen from this team - and I know quite a few of them already anyway - this team has got more than enough to win the league.
“For me, it is not about getting another move. I just want to enjoy my football again and if that is at East Kilbride by the summer, I will be at East Kilbride next season. I just need to get as many games as I can and prove to people that I am still good enough.
”If I enjoy it here, I think that’s where I will be next season as well. I came out of my first session thinking ‘Oh my God, this is something else’. It was a different level to what I have been used to, in terms of the football and the fitness.
“No disrespect to any of my former clubs, but that was right up there with the best and I came off the pitch just thinking ‘wow’ because of the intensity and the demands that are put on you, and I know I am going to love it here. It is a team full of winners.”