Raith Rovers: Injury blow as Brad Spencer ruled out for season's start
The influential midfielder was injured on just the second day of pre-season training and has undergone an operation on a metatarsal bone in his foot.
It’s the latest in a string of unfortunate injuries for the 26-year-old, who missed two spells of the 2021/22 campaign with a torn calf muscle and broken fibula respectively.
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Hide AdRaith boss Ian Murray said the injury looked fairly harmless when it first happened but further examination showed that surgery was unfortunately required.
“It was just an innocuous injury really,” he said.
“It happened during the warm up.
"I think it's something that's been bothering Brad for some time.
“It's a metatarsal problem that he's had and he had to get a pin in it just to hold it together.
“So he had to get an operation last week which has been a success. It's a fairly standard one.
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Hide Ad“He probably should have had it a while ago, but the demands of football are hard on players and staff so he had to play and it's caught up with him.
“We're going to be missing Brad now for up to 10-12 weeks, but there's nothing we can do and we'll just have to get on with it.
“We're disappointed for Brad firstly and we're disappointed for the rest of the players and the club, but that's football. We can't dwell on it too much.
“Brad's a positive guy. He's obviously frustrated with it, as are we, but I'm sure he’ll be fine.
“He'll come back a lot stronger than he was previously.
“We'll try and take the positives from it.
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Hide Ad"I'd rather it had happened now than two or three weeks into the season.”
Joining Spencer under the surgeon’s knife last week were team mates Ross Matthews and Lewis Vaughan
Both players required routine surgery which will see the pair also spending time on the touchline when the season kicks off.
However boss Murray was happy to report that there were no further complications for the pair and they are expected to return to action before Spencer does.
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Hide AdHe also stressed that Vaughan’s operation wasn’t related to his ACL injury which saw him miss nearly the entirety of last season.
"Both operations went really well,” he said.
“It was a success on both counts so we'll just get them both back in over the next seven to 10 days and try and get them started on their rehab.
“After that we'll see where they are.
"Hopefully we will have them both back in the next six to eight weeks, but it's just something we'll have to wait on.”
Defender Tom Lang is also making good progress on his rehab following his ACL injury last season, and is hoping to be ready to play around October or November after a lengthy spell away from the pitch.
The 25-year-old has been out of action since tearing his cruciate ligament in a 0-0 draw against Hamilton back in February.