Raith Rovers boss Barry Robson has vowed to tread carefully with returning hero Lewis Vaughan.
Vaughan made his first appearance in over five months – and just a sixth of the season – with his second-half cameo against Queen’s Park at the weekend.
Last term’s top scorer was a 69th-minute substitute in the 4-0 defeat as he made his comeback from hamstring surgery in the autumn.
Having previously battled back from four career-threatening ACL knee injuries, the 29-year-old has shown steely resolve to recover from his latest lay-off.
But Robson is adamant the talismanic forward will not be pushed too hard too soon in his recovery.
“Listen, we need to be really careful with Lewis Vaughan,” Robson told Courier Sport ahead of Wednesday’s clash with Livingston.
“He’s been out a long time and we need to make sure that he doesn’t get injured again.
“We need him for the run-in to the season. So, we’ve got to be careful and measured with him.
“We’ll have to wait and see how he reacts to some training sessions and how he reacts to games.
‘Manage him as best we can’
“And we’ve got a programme, looking at where he’s at. We’ll just have to try and manage him as best we can.”
With fellow strikers Jack Hamilton and Callum Smith, and on-loan defender George Gitau, now the only absentees, it may be more bruised egos Raith have to deal with after the weekend.
The 4-0 defeat to Queen’s Park was Rovers’ heaviest at home in three years and was mainly self-inflicted due to individual errors.
Having missed an opportunity to close the gap on Partick Thistle in fourth, Robson admits the Stark’s Park men must show a positive reaction away to title-chasing Livi as they try to avoid being sucked back into the battle to avoid a relegation play-off.
“We’ve gone through it [the game], we’ve put it to bed and we move on,” he added. “And we’ll make sure that we learn from the mistakes that we made.
“We’ve got to make sure that we don’t make the same mistakes again. And we move on and we need to go and try and perform well in a big game.
“Learn from it and make sure we see a reaction.
“When I came in here, everybody was looking down the way [in the table]. But we’re trying to make sure that we’re looking up the way.
“But, to do that, obviously we need to win games.”
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