Raith have received a big blow with the news that Bobby Barr is set to miss at least the next month because of a knee injury.
The winger, who joined Rovers during the summer, suffered the problem during the 4-2 win over Falkirk last weekend.
The 28-year-old former Morton and Brechin player was at the club’s Glenrothes training base yesterday on crutches and the club are now anxiously awaiting news on the full extent of the damage.
Raith boss Gary Locke said: “Bobby has picked up a bad knee injury and he’s going to see a specialist on Monday morning.
“We’re hopeful it won’t keep him out for too long but, certainly, at the minute, he’s going to miss the next month, anyway.
“But hopefully it’s not much longer than that.
“He’s been for a scan and he’s going to see a specialist.
“It’s a wee problem with the knee but we’ll know better on Monday or Tuesday.
“He tried to knock the ball up the line and got caught in a tackle, and at the time I thought it looked like a bad one.
“And certainly that seems to be the case.”
Locke added: “It’s a blow for us and it seems to be the way of the season so far.
“At least with Bobby’s injury we’ve got Chris Johnston, Scott Roberts and Joe Thompson who can all play in that area of the pitch, so we’re not too bad.”
Locke declared himself more than satisfied with last week’s result and display against the Bairns and he has now called on his players to hit the heights again on a consistent basis.
He added: “It was a brilliant result. I felt it was our best performance of the season and having analysed it again with Darren (Jackson) my opinion’s not changed.
“We played some great stuff against a quality side. To score four goals at Falkirk, we are absolutely delighted.
“We’re not going to get carried away. It was a great performance, but it’s only one game and we’ve got to make sure that we try to build a wee bit of momentum now.
“Looking at the first quarter and analysing that, we’ll need to be a bit more consistent.”
Locke will be hoping that consistency begins against Queen of the South tomorrow evening.
The Doonhamers triumphed in the first game between the two sides with the dangerous Stephen Dobbie netting two of their goals in their 3-1 victory.
Locke added: “I’m well aware that Queens were the one team this season who turned us over, especially in the second half down there.
“There was nothing in it for an hour and then after that they were the better team. That’s something we’ll obviously try to put right.
“Without a doubt we’ll have to try to keep Stephen Dobbie quiet.
“He was the difference between the two teams the last time and if you give him a chance he’ll tuck it away.”
Liam Smith is fit again after his hamstring injury but his loan spell is set to end this weekend.
Locke though, is keen to extend his stay at Stark’s and will speak to his parent club Hearts about the chances of doing so.
The manager added: “Liam’s got this weekend left but we’re speaking to Hearts. We’ve had a bit of dialogue and we’re really keen to extend his loan.
“We brought him here to play but unfortunately he picked up that hamstring injury.
“He’s a Hearts player and they’ll dictate what happens with him.
“After Saturday’s game we’ll hopefully sit down and have a wee discussion and see if we can extend it.”
