Ian Murray hasn’t yet had the chance to select Lewis Vaughan but he has still been impressed by him.
The Raith Rovers manager says the forward has “an appetite you can’t teach” and is “champing at the bit” to get back involved.
The popular Rovers star had an operation on his anterior cruciate ligament in October last year.
A steady rehab he saw him go for a “tidy up” on his knee in June and he is now edging closer to making his return.
Murray cautious
“He’s shown great determination and character to keep bouncing back,” Murray told Courier Sport ahead of this Saturday’s visit of Cove Rangers.
“There are a lot of people who couldn’t do that.
“We have to be careful with him but we’re really excited to get him back, he’s a little livewire around the place.
“His appetite for football is something you can’t teach.
“Again it’s going to put pressure on [other] players to perform.
“The sooner we get Lewis back the better.”
Return to contact training
The Raith manager said the plan is to see how Vaughan responds to contact in the next couple of weeks.
Recently he has joined in with “a lot” of non-contact exercises in training and his rehab results are positive.
If that goes well they can prepare him for a behind-closed-doors friendly.
“We need to get him a [bounce] game, maybe two,” continued Murray.
“We can’t expect him to rock up and in the pressure of a competitive game.
“But as soon as he gets contact in training and he feels confident about himself, we’ll certainly get him a game and give him a runout, then we’ll look to build him up.
“The next test for Lewis is a little bit of contact, nothing crazy, and see how he does.”
Like four new signings
It’s a cliche but the Rovers boss thinks that the return of Vaughan – all going well – will be one of four players who feel like new signings.
Brad Spencer and Ross Matthews returned recently while Thomas Lang is continuing his rehabilitation.
“It’s effectively four players we didn’t have in the League Cup campaign – and now I see the real quality that they’re bringing.
“Brad and Ross have come back really, really strong and they’re putting serious pressure on the midfielders.
“The knock-on effect is that they have to up their game.”
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