​Raith Rovers defender Callum Fordyce glad to be back on ball after almost three months out injured

Raith Rovers defender Callum Fordyce in action during their 1-1 William Hill Championship draw at home to Queen’s Park at Stark’s Park in Kirkcaldy on Saturday (Photo by Paul Byars/SNS Group)Raith Rovers defender Callum Fordyce in action during their 1-1 William Hill Championship draw at home to Queen’s Park at Stark’s Park in Kirkcaldy on Saturday (Photo by Paul Byars/SNS Group)
Raith Rovers defender Callum Fordyce in action during their 1-1 William Hill Championship draw at home to Queen’s Park at Stark’s Park in Kirkcaldy on Saturday (Photo by Paul Byars/SNS Group)
​Raith Rovers defender Callum Fordyce has told of his relief at being back in action after almost three months out injured.

​The West Lothian-born 32-year-old was given his first start for Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to Queen’s Park since sustaining an ankle injury on the opening day of the current William Hill Championship away to previous club Airdrieonians back at the beginning of August.

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The centre-back had been sidelined by ligament damage and a hairline fracture after getting one of his boots’ studs caught in the artificial turf at the Diamonds’ Excelsior Stadium home ground, his place of work for the prior five years.

That was Fordyce’s first injury since breaking his leg and ankle while at Dunfermline Athletic in 2015, keeping him out of action for just short of a year.

Raith Rovers defender Callum Fordyce warming up ahead of their 1-1 William Hill Championship draw hosting Queen’s Park at Stark’s Park in Kirkcaldy on Saturday (Photo by Paul Byars/SNS Group)Raith Rovers defender Callum Fordyce warming up ahead of their 1-1 William Hill Championship draw hosting Queen’s Park at Stark’s Park in Kirkcaldy on Saturday (Photo by Paul Byars/SNS Group)
Raith Rovers defender Callum Fordyce warming up ahead of their 1-1 William Hill Championship draw hosting Queen’s Park at Stark’s Park in Kirkcaldy on Saturday (Photo by Paul Byars/SNS Group)

Fordyce, signed from Airdrie on a two-year deal in May after making nearly 150 league appearances fot the North Lanarkshire outfit, played for the full 90-plus minutes at Kirkcaldy’s Stark’s Park at the weekend after being brought on as a 76th-minute substitute during Raith's 2-0 loss away to Greenock Morton on Saturday, October 5, and going on to feature for the first hour of Ross Matthews’ testimonial hosting a Heart of Midlothian XI the following Wednesday.

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He’s glad to be back in action after 11 weeks out, he says, and is hoping to be selected to face another of his former clubs, his home-town team Livingston, away this coming Saturday, with kick-off at 3pm.

“It’s definitely good to be back,” he said. “It’s been a long time out.

“To get back playing and on the training pitch and to get some minutes in the testimonial against Hearts has been good.

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“I came on against Morton for 15-20 minutes and played versus Hearts and that was the closest I’d got to a full run-out since the first game of the season.”

Fordyce’s comeback came sooner than he’d feared it might and he’s grateful for that, he says.

“My recovery’s been good, probably better than I expected,” he said.

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“I’m back sooner than I expected, and that’s thank to the physio and the rehab programme he gave me.

“We worked hard to get me back fit and, touch wood, everything’s been plain sailing since.

“I’m looking forward to hopefully remaining fit for the rest of the season so I can try and contribute to the team as much as I can in helping get us up the table and achieving what we want to achieve.”

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It had been doubly frustrating to go off injured only 62 minutes into the new season and in front of fans who’d been cheering him on just months before, he said.

“That was maybe one of the worst bits, with it being the first game of the season and against an old club,” he said.

“I’d played on that pitch for five years and not had a single injury, so to get one on that pitch, because of the pitch, was obviously frustrating.

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“It was just one of those things that can happen in football but you can’t dwell on it too much – you just need to look forward.

“I’d missed maybe four or five games in the five years I was at Airdrie and two or three of them were with covid, so to have hardly missed a game for all that time, then to have this happen has been very frustrating, but that’s just how football works at times.”

August’s defeat in North Lanarkshire was followed by then manager Ian Murray, also one of Fordyce’s bosses at Airdrie, being sacked the day after and, though sad to see his old gaffer go, he says he’s enjoying working with his successor, Neill Collins, appointed at the start of September.

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“I’d worked with Ian before at Airdrie and signed up here with him as well, but it’s just one of those things in football,” he said.

“It can be a merry-go-round with managers but that’s just football in general.

“It’s one of those things – a manager moves on and a new manager comes in, and he’s been great and set standards and I think the boys are starting to live up to them.”

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Looking ahead to this coming weekend’s trip to Livingston, his club from 2011 to 2015, making almost 100 league appearances as a senior, Fordyce said: “To be available and in the match-day squad is my main aim, and to go back to the club I started my career at and have good memories of would be something I’d look forward to.

“We’ve then got Airdrie at home the Tuesday after, so that’s two games for myself back to back against clubs I’ve played for and those are games I’m looking forward to.

“I only live five to ten minutes away from Livingston’s stadium and I’ve always stayed in Livingston so they would be my home team if I was going to watch football instead of playing it.”

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Fordyce believes Raith can now kick on and mount a challenge for promotion despite getting off to a faltering start following Murray’s departure, having won only two of their nine league games so far and lost five, leaving them eighth in the standings, on eight points, seven away from the top-four play-off places.

“It’s obviously not been the start the boys would have wanted, or the manager or the club as a whole, but we’re only nine games in,” he said.

“Nothing’s done at this stage of the season. There’s still a good chance that we could get promoted, and I think every other team in the division would say the same, from the bottom to the top.

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“It’s one of those things you’ve got to take one game at a time and try to get that snowball effect from momentum and try to get a string of results going because if you win two or three games in this league, it can get you right up to the top, and that’s our main aim.

“Everbody’s got aspirations for how they want the club to go forward and we’re a confident bunch of boys. It’s up to us now to go out on the pitch and hopefully start getting results.”

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