Raith Rovers club captain Ross Matthews glad to be back in action after three months out following toe op

The 26-year-old made his first appearance of the new season for manager Ian Murray’s Fifers on Saturday, coming on as an 81st-minute substitute during their 1-0 SPFL Trust Trophy tie at Cove Rangers and seeing out the remainder of the game, including six minutes’ injury time, without any ill effects.

“It felt good to be back involved after over three months out,” said Matthews, at the Kirkcaldy club since 2013 and with more than 230 appearances there to his name.

“I’d only really had a week’s training and the gaffer asked me if I wanted to be involved, and obviously I did.

“It was good just to be involved again and it was even better to get a few minutes on the pitch after about three and a half months now.

“I had to get an operation on my foot and they said to me there’d be about a three-month recovery period, so I’m at that stage now where it’s taken a wee bit longer than expected and I’ve still got a wee bit to go, but I’ve been given the all-clear by the surgeon to get back involved in training and games.

“There still is a wee bit of pain but I’m all right to do stuff.

“It’s been an ongoing problem ever since just before the play-offs in May last year, when we played Dundee.

“I had a foot injury, just below my big toe on the joint, and because I wanted to play in the play-offs, I played through it, which, looking back, was a bad decision because it made it worse and I lost some cartilage so I had some bone-on-bone friction, causing it to flare up a lot. Basically I’ve now had a clean-up operation in the summer there – a cheilectomy they call it, I think – where they shave some of the bone off and there’s a micro-fracture where they drill holes into the joint to create a grow-back of cartilage and hopefully it’ll give it a bit more cushioning.

“I’m still at the stage where the cartilage is growing back, which is why it’s still a wee bit sore.

“I’m still at the early stages of coming back, so there is a small reaction after I train, but as long as it eases off within 24 hours, I’m OK.

“It’s reacted quite well after Saturday because it was only ten minutes or so, and I’ve probably done more than that within training, so it’s all right.

“It’s just a case of managing it at the moment. I don’t want to do too much and have a bad reaction and put myself further back. I’m just kind of easing myself back in.

“I’m just happy to be involved at the moment even if it is only in the squad. It’s up to me now to prove myself in training and obviously the team have done really well in their last few games.

“It’s hard just to watch, even if a team are playing well. You’re always, when you’re watching, just imagining yourself being back out there.”

Matthews was especially pleased to be part of the only Rovers side to beat Cove since their first competitive meeting back in July 2016 at Aberdeen’s Station Park, a 2-1 league cup tie victory he also played in.

“We’ve learned over the years that that’s a tough place to go and that’s the first win we’ve got up at Cove for years,” he said.

“I thought, especially in the first half, we played really well and kept the ball and could have been, in my opinion, two or three up at half-time if we’d taken our chances.

“In the second half, Cove came out a lot stronger and it was a wee bit backs to the wall when I came on at the end but we defended well and it was a good result and kept up a good run in that cup as we’ve done well in it over the last few years.”

The SPFL Trust Trophy, alias the Scottish Professional Football League Challenge Cup, represents one of Raith’s best chances of picking up silverware and they’ve got extra motivation to keep hold of it seeing as it’s already in their trophy cabinet, courtesy of a 3-1 victory in the final in April against Queen of the South in Airdrie, according to Matthews.

“We want to win everything we play in, and I think this is the most realistic chance we’ve got in a cup tournament to win a trophy so I don’t see why we shouldn’t be going into it wanting to win every game, “ he said.

“We’ve done so well in it over the last couple of years and I’d love to be up there again picking up another winners’ medal. That would be brilliant.

“It was great day back in the spring at Airdrie and it would be good to do that again.”