James McPake is convinced Kyle Benedictus will benefit from being cautiously eased back into action with Dunfermline.
The 32-year-old missed eight weeks of action with a hamstring issue that flared up back in August.
That came after an injury-afflicted campaign last season, in which the Pars skipper suffered a broken foot and two separate thigh complaints.
The ex-Dundee and Raith Rovers defender made just 18 appearances last term and missed a further eight games before his comeback against Livingston last Tuesday.
It was a successful return, with Benedictus scoring in the 3-0 victory before running out of steam in the final ten minutes.
He then managed the full 90 minutes as the Fifers went down 1-0 to Patrick Thistle on Saturday.
“It’s massively important to have Kyle back, in my opinion,” said McPake. “Kyle’s a player who is vastly experienced.
“Since he came into this club, he’s been excellent.
McPake: ‘We certainly missed him’
“Injuries have been an issue, and a frustrating one for him, I think. He’ll tell you himself he was disappointed with the season last year, just in terms of the amount of games he played.
“And we certainly missed him. He’s experienced, but also still a really good player, a really good defender, a leader.
“And what I like about him is he gets other people doing things as well. He never shuts up when he’s on the pitch.
“I think if you ask any player, they’re all delighted when he’s in our team as well.”
Sam Young has impressed since the 18-year-old was given a top-team opportunity this season. And Tommy Fogarty, Sam Fisher and Chris Hamilton all provide other options in central defence.
That perhaps played into McPake’s decision to play things safe with Benedictus, who was an unused substitute against Morton and Falkirk before returning versus Livi.
“In your head, you’re wanting to play him at Falkirk (on October 26),” he added. “He’d have been, for me, the first name on the team-sheet, had I believed he would have managed Saturday, Tuesday.
“But we just felt it was a tough ask to do that with him, particularly given the time he had been out.
‘A conscious decision’
“So we chose to wait for last Tuesday’s game, and it’s paid off.
“I made a conscious decision and I had chats with Kyle that, with this one, we were going to make sure that we had ticked absolutely every box we could.
“And that’s not to say we hadn’t done the treatment correctly with the other ones.
“But it included a reserve game, 60 minutes in that. And three or four weeks of training, as opposed to the two the time before.
“So we decided to take a little bit of extra time.”
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