Dunfermline manager Jim Jefferies insists that going part-time will not be a problem for midfielder Chris Kane.
The 20-year-old, who is ditching full-time football to attend an engineering course at Heriot-Watt University, will now probably train more with the Pars’ under-20 side this season than the first team to keep up his match fitness, but is still very much in Jefferies plans for the rest of the season.
“He’s a bright lad and there’s a top engineering course at Heriot-Watt University that he had delayed for a couple of years,” Jefferies explained.
“He’s had a bit of a dilemma because they wouldn’t keep it open, but he looks at the football world in a sensible way and knows that it either might not be the career path that he sees in the future, or he might want to do this course and then do football so he’s got something to fall back on.
“He’s outside the transfer window so if he wanted to go elsewhere he couldn’t he would have to wait until January.
“So I told him we wanted him to stay here and we came to a good compromise where he could play in the under-20s and keep his match fitness up, and I could get him training facilities.
“The good thing is that there will be a lot of afternoon sessions where, if he finishes university early, he could come back and join in with whoever is training.
“He just reverts to being a part-time player, but I’ve said to him that there will be a lot of games where, if I’ve got injuries, we could use him.
“He is a naturally fit boy anyway and he trains and looks after himself well, so going part-time won’t be an issue for us because any time I call on him for the first team either through injuries or just to get him a game we can play him.
“It’s a sensible thing and you can’t deny him that if that’s what he wants to do.”
Administration forced several players to consider their options at the end of last season, notably defender Andy Geggan who considered taking on a job on a building site, and Jefferies isn’t about to stand in anyone’s way if they wanted to follow in Kane’s footsteps.
However, he hopes that will not be the case.
“I don’t think it would be a problem if anyone else wanted to do that, but I don’t know if we’ve got too many bright enough to go to university!” he joked.
“Before Chris even came here he wanted to give the football a go, but when it came to the crunch he had to go part-time. But he’s happy with the situation and we’re happy because he’s still a Dunfermline player.”