It was good to see goalkeeper Josh Rae at Palmerston yesterday. The 20-year-old sustained a nasty facial injury earlier this month during our home game against Kilmarnock. Speaking ahead of kick-off he gave us an update on how he is doing after his recent surgery.
“I’m feeling a lot better now, the hardest part is past with. It is about 10 days ago now so I’m starting to feel better so come Tuesday I can hopefully start to work my way back and get some bike and gym work done to start with and build my way up from there”.
“I wasn’t allowed to do anything for two weeks as I got two plates in my cheekbone and between my eye socket and my nose so it wasn’t very nice but it all went well and I’m looking forward to getting things done now; it’s been a hard couple of weeks so I’m just raring to get back. The quicker I get back doing stuff the better because the past few weeks have dragged in, just sitting about doing nothing, not being able to do anything but hopefully come Tuesday I can get back doing stuff”.
The injury came as he was caught by the trailing leg of Killie defender Brandon Haunstrup but it’s not something Josh knows too much about “I can’t really remember it, I can only remember walking back off again but even then I was still a bit gone. It wasn’t very nice when I look back on the photos and the footage and stuff and my Mum was freaking out over there so it wasn’t nice for them to see either but the main thing is that I am ok and its not anything too serious”.
“It is certainly the most fearful injury I’ve had. I’ve done my shoulder and broken some bones in my wrist and stuff but nothing to that extreme. It was quite scary to be honest but its past with now and the hard part is done”.
It is gutting for the young stopper who was just getting established in the side “I was really enjoying it and I feel I was just starting to find my feet and starting to really enjoy my time. Back playing in front of the fans and stuff made it even better, hopefully I will be able to get back out there soon and get some games again”.
Yesterday was the first time he was back at football since sustaining the injury and he couldn’t be happier “I couldn’t go last week, I was really ill, so this is the first time I’ve seen the boys since it happened so it was good to see them all again; just being around that banter again because I have missed it. Feeling part of it is a big part because It’s not good being away from it, it feels good being around everyone and being back at the stadium again”.
Josh had previously spent time with us as emergency cover last season and admits that the short time he spent at Queens then made it an easy decision to sign in the summer “Yes 100%, I really enjoyed my time here although I didn’t play, I enjoyed the training, I enjoyed working with Ross the goalie coach, the Manager. I really enjoyed it so that made my decision really easy in the summer, when I found out that they were interested in bringing me here I wanted it to happen right away”.
“I started at Hamilton and moved to Celtic where I was for a few years and then I got the opportunity to go down to Leeds, I was there for a couple of years which was brilliant but I got to a point where I just wanted to play first team football, I ended up going out to play with Cowdenbeath for a few games before it got shutdown and then last season I signed for Peterhead and played near enough every game there. I felt I had a decent enough season and got the opportunity to come here and for me one of the main things for me coming here was full time. I wanted to be full time and to be able to do that in the Championship is brilliant as it’s a good level to be playing at. I was full time with leads but at first team level this is my first full time contract so its exciting and I can’t want to get back out there”.
While at Balmoor Josh was a team-mate of a certain Derek Lyle, a fans favourite in Dumfries and someone Josh respected “Derek was good with me, he helped me out when I first went in. He is experienced and knows his way about the place, he can score goals and even in the latter parts of his career he is still scoring. He was one of the ones that really made me feel welcome up there, he is really decent”.
Sitting on the side-lines will be hard for the number one, as he just wants to be part of it. He feels they deserves more points than they’ve got “The first couple of games I played in I think we were really hard done by; I think we deserved a point out of them if not winning them to be honest we could’ve won either of them. It was important to get the three points last week just to get the points on the board, but I think we could be pushing higher up the league because the players we have got and the performances we’ve put in have shown that”.
As he continues his recovery he will have to be content watching but will be doing all he can to push for a starting place as soon as possible “When it first happened I got told 8 weeks but that has been a few weeks ago and I had the surgery about 10 days ago so hopefully come this time next month I am pushing and back in full-time training. I just want to be back as quickly as I possibly can, and I will be doing everything I can to do that. As long as I feel 100%, I will be back training full time and hopefully get back involved in games”.