Raith boss Gary Locke has revealed that everyone at the club is “absolutely gutted” for Scott Robertson after the midfielder suffered a setback in his recovery from a groin op.
The 31-year-old turned out for Rovers Under-20s last week and successfully negotiated the first 45 minutes of the game against Alloa..
However, in the days that followed, Robertson began to suffer pain and he is now set to return to his specialist in a bid to sort out the problem once and for all.
Locke said: “Unfortunately Scott has had a reaction. That has been the one bit of bad news this week.
“He was great in the game, looked really good, then had a couple of days himself to recover – and the pain has come back. So he will need to go back to the specialist.
“We are all absolutely gutted for him because he has worked ever so hard to get back to fitness.
“However, that is the issue with these sort of injuries, sometimes you can get a bit of a reaction.
“We have tried to be careful with Scott and monitor his recovery.
“Scott is an experienced player and knows his own body and I’ve said to him that, rather than training every day, he can do different things, work in the pool or do sessions with the sports scientist.
“But, as much as we’ve tried to look after him, we’ve had that setback after the game.
“I’m not a specialist by any means but I think it will just be a case of resting it until it feels right.
“He’s maybe tried to come back a little bit too quickly, but hopefully we can get to the bottom of it because he is going to be a big player for us this season.”
While Robertson has suffered this setback, Locke admitted there was better news on other injured players at the club.
He said: “Bobby Barr has started running, Jason Thomson will hopefully start jogging. We are looking around Christmas that we’ll have those two available.
“Mango (Craig Barr) has started running as well so he is progressing nicely. As much as I would like them back yesterday, they are getting there.”
With Thomson still out, Iain Davidson will have to continue as a stop-gap full-back.
“Davo” has been doing a great job in defence but Locke revealed that he has not given up hope of bringing Hearts right-back Liam Smith back in on loan for a second time.
The manager added: “He went back to Hearts, which is terrific for Liam because the reason he came here was to get games and use that to get into the Hearts side.
“He went back there and played in their last fixture and we are delighted to see that.
“Liam is a Hearts player, he was only here on loan, but if he doesn’t play in the next four or five games and becomes available, then I would love to have him back.
“We do need cover in that area, but it’s finances that dictate what we can do. With Liam Smith, Hearts were just keen for him to play, so it didn’t cost us anything.”
