Billy King is grateful to Dundee United manager Csaba Laszlo for being so understanding during his long injury lay-off.
The Tangerines’ wideman missed the start of the season due to a knee tendon problem, an ailment that has left him wearing insoles in his boots.
The initial estimate was that his absence would be for a fortnight or so.
However, the precious return of the King wasn’t until the Irn-Bru Cup tie against Alloa three weeks ago, when he came on as a substitute, and he has since appeared from the bench in the Championship games against Morton and Falkirk.
He is now in contention to start for United in today’s eagerly-awaited home clash against Ross County.
King’s own patience has been stretched to the limit but he has been helped in his recovery by sympathetic boss Laszlo.
King revealed: “I am delighted to be back because being injured has made it such a tough start to the season for me.
“It has been one of those injuries that you couldn’t put a time frame on.
“I have just had to deal with it week by week.
“The recovery took longer than expected and that was probably the worst aspect for me – I thought it would be a couple of weeks that I would be out.
“It has lingered on but thankfully I am over it now.
“It has obviously been frustrating for the manager, too, to have a player out.
“I think he also thought my absence wouldn’t be as long as it has turned out to be.
“I appreciate that he has been really good with me and we have worked together to manage my comeback over the last couple of weeks.
“Now, hopefully, I can get back in and stay there.
“The gaffer does everything properly, with tactics and planning etc, and now it is up to us players to put it into practice on the pitch.”
King admitted he was left fed up and frustrated as his teammates trained and played.
He added: “It is your job and you want to be out there training with the rest of the lads through the week and then play on a Saturday.
“So it’s frustrating to do the same thing every day for three months because you are injured.
“When you are playing and you see other boys out you don’t really appreciate how hard it is for them.
“It is difficult and that’s why I’m so happy to be back.
“I have not had a pre-season so I’m not anywhere near the fitness level I want to be at just now but once I get my match fitness up then that hopefully I can kick on.”
As well as King, influential midfielder Fraser Fyvie is expected to start this afternoon against the Staggies after missing the 2-0 victory at Falkirk because of the artificial surface.
Add in the return to training this week of Stewart Murdoch and Sam Stanton, then Laszlo suddenly has a few more decent options available to him.
King added: “It is good to get everyone back fit again.
“It is healthy for the manager to have greater competition for places because that pushes everyone on.
“We have some tough games coming up against teams who are around about us (Ayr United, Partick Thistle and Inverness follow County) so that will be a real help.
“It was a good result for us last Saturday and hopefully that can be a stepping stone for a wee run.
“I don’t want to speak too soon but winning breeds confidence and there hasn’t really been a team so far that has stood out. If we can do that then it would be great.
“Getting all the players back will help us.”
