Watching their son play football has turned into a form of torture for Murray Davidson’s mum and dad.
Seeing their boy sustain a serious knee injury a couple of years ago would have been bad enough, but in recent times the St Johnstone midfielder has got into the unwelcome habit of being brought off with nasty-looking head knocks.
It would be understandable if his parents were dreading Saturday afternoons.
“I’m having no luck at the moment,” he said. “But at least I wasn’t concussed again
“A few people after the game were saying they thought it was my leg again.
“My mum and dad, Liz and Ronald, are going through the mill. I’m putting years on them. It’s not easy for any family when they see their son being injured, not just mine.
“My girlfriend Holly isn’t coming to games because we now have the baby, Summer. It is probably just as well.
“But my folks are at every game, home and away. They go through it with me and they have been very supportive.
“It is worrying for them. They are relieved when I come though games.
“But it has been like that for them since I was seven years old. It’s just the way things are.”
Davidson’s latest injury in the Hamilton match proved to be a bonus for replacement Liam Craig, who scored within minutes of coming on.
Davidson recalled: “I went up for an early header in the Accies game and took a knock.
“Because I had been concussed in the previous game against Celtic I was telling myself to get to my feet.
“I thought I was fine but then I tasted the blood.
“The ref, Andrew Dallas, was asking if I was alright but then he spotted the blood and said I would have to go off.
“The cut didn’t look too bad at first. We thought it would only take one stitch.
“But in the dressing room it turned out to be much worse and it actually needed five. It was quite a big gash inside the mouth.
“The problem was that it wasn’t easy to access. It’s right up in the top of the mouth..
“Playing with 10 men, I knew the manager had to make a decision. I said if it was going to take a while to patch me up the bench had to be told.
“The last thing I wanted was losing a goal when we were a man short. You want to get back on but I had to be sensible about it.
“We could afford to relax a bit when we heard Liam had gone on. And it was great for him to get his first goal since coming back to the club from Hibs. So it was definitely the right decision we made.
“And it is good to have competition for places. That was shown by Liam’s impact.”
Saints are now unbeaten in four home games, but are pointless from three on the road.
Davidson and his team-mates are aiming to put that right this afternoon.
He said: “It was an important game for us because we knew Hamilton had won three on the bounce before playing us.
“Killie got a good win at Tannadice. They had a sticky start after signing a few players over the summer.
“They will take confidence from that result. United are probably a bit low on confidence and scoring a winner near the end will have been a massive boost to Killie.
“They will be looking to kick on. But we are looking to do the same.”
Steven MacLean will be left out on Killie’s artificial pitch as a result of medical advice.