Raith winger Barr frustrated by injury restrictions

Barr became the latest player to fall to this season’s injury curse when he picked up a groin strain before the Challenge Cup game against Dumbarton in early November.

The 29-year-old has hardly trained since and his treatment has been put on hold so that he could come off the bench and make substitute appearances in recent games.

He is due to go for an injection next week, a procedure which would rule him completely out of action for up to seven days, but if that fails to clear things up, he may require surgery and an even longer spell on the sidelines.

“I’m sore,” Barr told the Press. “I’ve not trained, and I’ve delayed an injection to help gaffer out.

“He asked me to sit on bench against Alloa, and I played more than I probably should have.

“I came on in the Airdrie game as well, where the surface wasn’t great, and I was sore after that.

“I’m missing it and I’m fed up sitting on the bench when, in my opinion, I would be playing.

“I’ve been there to support the boys, and I’m willing to give as much as I can.

“If the gaffer needs me for 20 minutes or half an hour, and I can get through it, then so be it.

“Hopefully this injection settles it down, and I don’t need surgery.”

While willing to make sacrfices to help the cause, Barr admitted that his injury is preventing him from reaching his peak level, and the standards set in the impressive early months of the campaign.

“I can’t afford to be in this position and I don’t want to be,” he said. “I want to play as much as I can.

“There’s nothing worse than sitting on the side not being able to help your team.

“I’m confident in my own ability, and if I’m fit, I bring a lot to the team, like others do as well.

“It’s just disappointing from my point of view that I’ve been playing injured, and not able to give as much as I can.

“But as long as the gaffer needs me on the bench I’ll be available.”

The postponement of the Albion Rovers match on Saturday meant that Rovers fell eight points behind at the top of League One following Ayr United’s win at East Fife.

Barr insisted, however, that nobody is getting downhearted about the gap.

“People outwith the dressing room will maybe think Ayr are massive favourites now,” he said.

“But we’ve got two games in hand, and we still play Ayr at home in January, so come February it could be a completely different picture.

“You don’t get too down, just take care of the next game, and try to pick up as many points as possible.

“I’m assuming it will be neck and neck between us two all the way.

“We just have of get our best 11 on the park fit and available and we’ll be fine.”

Rovers last game, a 2-2 draw in Airdrie, took place in subzero temperatures and Barr believes the match should have been postponed after artificial surfaces at Falkirk and Alloa were called off on Saturday.

“The game should never have been played in my opinion,” he said. “It was a leveller, although we were poor on the day.

“I saw a picture of Falkirk’s surface and there was no ice on top of it. There was ice on Airdrie’s park, but the referee turned around and said, ‘astro is always hard’, so we just had to get on with it.

“In my opinion he put 22 boys at risk from injury. Luckily nobody got injured, but you couldn’t stop or turn properly, and it might have affected our perforamnce.

“For me it was the wrong decision just because it was on Alba. I don’t understand why they played itbut we dropped two points and it’s just disappointing from our point of view.”