Scotland's Bhatti reflects on life in the abattoir
Jamie Bhatti has described the somewhat harrowing path he has taken from working in an abattoir to an expected starting role for Scotland at the Six Nations.
The Glasgow Warriors prop is expected to be one of the players to benefit from an injury crisis in the forwards.
WP Nel, Ross Ford and Fraser Brown are ruled out for Gregor Townsend, which means their pack will take on an unfamiliar look, with Bhatti set to play a role.
The 24 year-old has three caps as a replacement to his name already and has described how days at the slaughter house refined his determination to make it at the highest level.
"In the beginning, I was in the packing room, packing the meat, but then they put me through my licence to do the killing," Bhatti told BBC Sport. "I was on the sheep slaughter line for a while and then I got put over on the cattle side. That was seen as a step up. For my last two years, I slaughtered cattle.
"Three of us done it. The same thing all day long from six in the morning.
"Dire. Poor cows, man. Standing killing cows all day. I'll have killed 100,000 cows and I remember thinking at the time, 'I can't be in here for the rest of my days. I just can't be'."
Bhatti has just 15 starts for the Warriors to his name, and admits the call-up to Scotland came out of the blue.
"It's been surreal," he said. "People are asking me if I watched the Six Nations when I was a kid and I go, 'As a kid? I watched it last season still feeling like a kid. I was a fan, just like everybody else'.
"I didn't think for a second that this was going to happen to me."
