Raith Rovers: Latest Hall of Fame inductee Tommy Hislop recounts being listed as an emergency substitute when Raith chairman used hacksaw to chop plaster off his broken wrist

Hislop, who made 268 appearances for the Kirkcaldy club between 1967 and 1975, scoring eight goals, recounted how the horror injury came about initially and also the dramatic goings on which followed in a game at Stark’s Park four weeks later, in an era when teams could use only one substitute.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Raith Rovers but I had injury problems there,” Hislop, 76, told the Fife Free Press.

"On the day I got the wrist injury we were mucking about during training, I went in goal and we were playing rules that I couldn’t come out of the six-yard box and the other players couldn’t come into it.

"The ball came across, I caught it and then threw it out to the wing.

"And then all of a sudden I had this pain in my wrist and I was 10 months in plaster.

"That wrist injury was murder. About four weeks later my wife (Margaret) and myself went down to watch a game at Kirkcaldy – I’m sure the Raith manager at the time was Jimmy Millar – and there was an announcement over the tannoy: 'Tommy Hislop, report to the dressing room'.

"My wife asked me: 'What's that about?' And I replied: 'I haven't a clue'.

"So I went to the dressing room and two players had walked out and they had no subs, so I was asked if I would be a sub.

"I replied: 'What about my wrist?'

"The referee came in and told me the plaster would need to come off.

"So Rankin Grimshaw (Raith Rovers chairman), got a hacksaw and hacked the plaster off. That was just one of these things that you did at that time.

"I said I would do it (come on as a substitute if required) but the only thing was that I couldn't tie my boots! Someone tied them for me.

"But I never came on at all, they were only going to play me if they had to.

"And the next day a replacement plaster was put on back at the hospital.”

Hislop and his fellow 2023 Hall of Fame inductees will officially be enrolled at a ceremony in Kirkcaldy’s Adam Smith Theatre on Monday, November 20.

The ex-defender, who was comfortable playing at either right-back or left-back, loved his time at Kirkcaldy but his appearances total was also hampered by a previous injury which he also recounted.

Hislop added: "Fairly early in my Rovers career I broke my ankle in a game at Cowdenbeath, I was four weeks in plaster, I got it off on the Monday, trained Tuesday and Thursday then played on the Saturday.

"It was just a 50/50 ball, the two of us went for it, we collided and he was carried off.

"I hobbled off to the side and then I remember Gordon Wallace passing a ball to me and I went to trap it with my right foot, which was the one I broke.

"So I just collapsed and that was it.”