Raith Rovers' Anton Dowds reveals his 'great surprise' at being out injured for so long after being crocked at Inverness
Having missed seven games with an ankle injury sustained in the 2-0 William Hill Championship win at Inverness Caledonian Thistle on September 5, striker Anton Dowds has now had three games back playing with the Kirkcaldy side.
But the 30-year-old former Ayr United star – signed on a one-year contract at Stark’s Park this summer – has revealed that he had initially thought the impact of picking up his injury in the Highlands over two months ago would likely be minimal.
“It’s been a frustrating couple of months,” Dowds told Raith TV. “I didn’t think initially that the tackle that I got was that bad.
"I think it was just one of them where I’ve brought the ball down with the centre-half and the midfielder’s probably tried to close me from his side and it just looks like he’s gone over the top of the ball and it’s basically done most of the ligaments in my ankle.
"At the time you’re not sure of the extent of it so that’s why I’ve tried to play on for the rest of the first half and then gave it another 10 minutes of the second. But you know yourself that if you’re not moving properly you don’t want to be at fault for losing your man at a corner.
"You start thinking about your team at that stage and I said to the gaffer (Dougie Imrie) that something wasn’t right so I came off.
"And I guess it was a case of thinking that it would be a week or two and then when we got a scan it was realised that it was quite a serious injury.
"And at one point we thought it was going to be surgery when we saw the specialist. But thankfully the specialist came back and said there was evidence of healing there so we could continue with the rehab programme that meant that we didn’t need to get any operation.
"So that was a big relief and obviously brought the timescale for return down by about a month to two months.”
Dowds’ first full 90 minutes back came in Rovers’ 5-3 penalty shootout defeat at Hamilton Accies following a 1-1 draw in the sides’ KDM Evolution Trophy last 32 tie and the striker said: “Everyone’s frustrated. I know it was a big success for the club last year winning that trophy so we wanted to defend it.
"But bodies are thin on the ground and I don’t think the manager had many options to change it. The Hamilton goalie made some very big saves.”