Dundee United midfielder Scott Robertson is hoping his injury travails are behind him so he can set about proving he is worth a new contract.
The 26-year-old has 12 months left on his current deal and is the first to admit he has not made as many appearances in a tangerine shirt as he would have liked.
The former Dundee man does not believe a reputation as being susceptible to regular spells on the sidelines is fair, however.
The Scotland international said, “I’ve been at the club three years and I’ve only been fit for 18 months of that so people might label me as being injury prone. But it’s only been two injuries. One of them took a long time to clear up an abdominal and groin problem and this last one was unpreventable. It was a total accident that could happen to anybody.”
He added, “This is a big year for me. My contract’s up and I’ve not been spoken to by anybody about a new deal. The manager and chairman haven’t approached me so I know I have to really impress to be offered another contract.”
The second injury Robertson referred to was a blow to his ankle at the start of the month in a friendly against Forfar. It caused him to miss United’s Europa League qualifiers against Slask Wroclaw a source of great frustration.
“It was hard to miss out on the European matches, especially as we were knocked out. It’s a tough one to take after working so hard to help get us into Europe, then it’s all over after one tie.”
Had United’s shortlived European campaign not passed him by, Robertson would have been quite happy with the time it has taken him to recover.
“I’m two weeks ahead of schedule because when I got the injury it was thought I could be out for six weeks. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be playing the small-sided games and then be ready for the weekend.”Good pre-seasonHe added, “I don’t think the injury has cost me much fitness because I was able to run after two weeks and I’d had a good full pre-season before that.
“I’ve been getting myself back to where I was over the last 10 days so I’d like to think I’ve not lost too much.”
Sunday’s opponents Hearts are expected to be at the front of the pack in the battle for third place in the SPL, as they were last season. If anything, the task of finishing above the Tynecastle club will be even tougher this time around, according to Robertson.
“Hearts will be full of confidence after going to Ibrox and playing the way they did. They finished third last season and they’ve strengthened on the back of it.
“But I definitely think there’s no reason why we can’t compete with them. We nearly pegged them back last year. We lost our chance when we were beaten by Rangers at Ibrox but it wasn’t a big gap in the end after being a long way back.
“We’ve lost a lot of players but we’ve still got a good team and we’ll give it a real go.”
Robertson admitted getting to grips with an old nemesis, John Sutton, will be a priority, adding, “He played really well at Motherwell last season and has got a great move to Hearts.”