Raith Rovers boss John McGlynn believes Iain Davidson’s return to full fitness is a major boost for the club on and off the park.
The influential midfielder and former captain has been out since the opening day of the league campaign when he suffered a knee ligament injury at Falkirk.
Davidson has been battling back to full fitness and came off the bench on Saturday 10 minutes into the second half against Ross County to finally make his comeback for the first team.
McGlynn said: ”We had hoped to have Iain available for the Dundee game three weeks ago but that was possibly being a bit ambitious. However, we felt he was ready to take a place as a substitute against Ross County and he came on for a spell.
”It is good to have him back as he has been missed. He is a big influence on the side both on and off the park.
”He picked up a bit of a calf injury against Ross County which caused concern but, thankfully, he has returned to training and he should be OK for this Saturday.”
Unfortunately for Raith and Davidson, his return was not a winning one, with the Kirkcaldy side losing out to a late Staggies goal.
McGlynn admitted it was even more disappointing coming a week after his side’s thrilling 2-2 draw at Hamilton.
”It is very frustrating as a manager when your team perform so differently from one week to the next. To be fair, the lads have done well in most of the games so far this season but they dropped off against Ross County.
”We are all striving for consistency and if we can achieve that, I feel we can enjoy a successful, positive campaign.”
McGlynn has injury worries for this weekend’s trip to Livingston with Laurie Ellis (ankle), Willie Dyer (foot), Reece Donaldson (achilles) and Brian Graham (dead leg) all causing concern.
The Stark’s Park boss is hopeful some if not all of them will be fit by Saturday.
However one player who will definitely be absent is young goalkeeper Ross Laidlaw. He had a scan on his injured knee which has shown there is no cartilage damage but he does have bruising on the bone.
McGlynn will assess Laidlaw’s progress over the upcoming international break before deciding whether he will have to bring another goalkeeper in as backup to David McGurn.