East Fife injury woes

EAST FIFE’S injury problems have deepened with the loss of goalkeeper Iain Ross and midfielder John Martin over the weekend.

Ross had to be replaced by John Dodds for Saturday’s 2-1 win over Arbroath after collapsing in agony during the warm-up with a back problem, while Martin limped off with what looked like a recurrence of a troublesome ankle injury seven minutes from time.

The Fifers already had Greig McDonald, Paul Hampshire and Gary Kelly on the long-term injured list, while Scott Crabbe and Paul Ritchie are still recovering from hamstring strains.

Jamie McGowan did manage to play a pivotal role in Saturday’s victory, despite nursing a niggling achilles injury suffered a few weeks ago.

However, manager Dave Baikie admitted he was glad that players now had a full week to recover, such was the strain being placed on his squad.

“Iain had a muscle spasm in his back and he felt a bit of stiffness in it so we had to put John in,” said Baikie.

“There was actually no one near him, he moved one way and just collapsed, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

“It’s disappointing as there was really good competition between the two goalkeepers but, as I say, we’ll have to wait and see what his reaction is.”

The Methil boss went on, “John Martin damaged a ligament last week. We took a chance on Saturday but he got a kick on the same ankle and it forced him off.

“Again, we’ll wait and see how bad it is and we’ll hope to have him back as soon as possible.

“But I’m pleased that we’ve not got any cup games this week because I think a few of the players need the week to recover.

“Hopefully we’ll be in a better situation before we go to Elgin on Saturday, but it doesn’t look good at the moment.”

heard that there was only about 9 players training last night, jablonsky, j smart, s crabbe etc are all injured but seen p ritchie training