Elgin City defender Jack Murray admits he pushed his rehabilitation from a serious knee injury too hard but is now back and ready for a big finish to the William Hill League 2 season
The worst injury of his young football career kept Jack Murray out of Elgin City action for more than two months.
Now the former Ross County and Buckie Thistle centre half is back, and determined to help City reinvigorate their promotion challenge in League 2.
The 24-year-old strained the medial ligament in his knee after colliding with the goalkeeper during a league match at Edinburgh City before Christmas.
His substitution in that match contributed to a defeat which saw Elgin toppled from top spot in the division, and they have since slipped out of the bottom three for the first time this season.
Murray admits he pushed his rehabilitation too hard and wanted to come back quickly, but after sitting out nine matches he made his return in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Peterhead.
The timing of his recovery could be crucial, with the defender not only a vital part of manager Allan Hale’s defensive plans but also a potent scoring threat when Elgin force a setplay at the other end of the pitch.
“It’s the first time I’ve been out injured for that length of time. It makes you aware of all the little exercises that the physios tell you to do,” he said.
“I was starting to get a bit frustrated towards the end. I tried pushing myself coming back too early, probably before I was ready.
“I was kidding myself on saying it wasn't sore and that, but thankfully now I think it's all clear so hopefully we can kick on now.
“I was definitely getting frustrated, not playing for so long. You start to think you could have maybe made a difference in some of the games, but I think over the piece the lads have done alright.
“To stay in the mix with the sort of injury situation that we've had, they deserved credit for that. Now we've got a few returning so we're looking to pick up as many points as we can now.”
Every team goes through a sticky set of results in a season and City are having theirs right now, with four defeats in a row since their back-to-back wins over Bonnyrigg Rose and East Fife at the start of February.
They are still in the play-off places with ten games to go, and three consecutive home fixtures in a week coming up against Forfar Athletic, Spartans and Clyde.
Murray added: “Obviously at the start of the season when things were going well it was sort of easy to be jumping about and feeling good in training.
“You notice things as well when results haven’t been going your way, but even these last few weeks the boys are still in good spirits and still got a good attitude to look to progress.”
Murray is pleased to be teaming up once again with his former Buckie team-mate Jack MacIver, who arrived on loan at Borough Briggs a month ago.
“He's come in and slotted in easily and he's done very well for us actually.
“He's sort of been thrown in straight away and he's not looked out of place. He's been good in training as well, so he's a good player to have for us.”
Murray has made the step-up from Highland League football almost seamlessly, and sees team-mates like MacIver and Ryan Sargent doing the same.
“I think there's a lot more in the Highland League that could probably make the step up, there’s a few gems in there.
“The biggest thing I’ve noticed about playing at this level is that every game is difficult. You look at League 2 right now and every single team is playing for something, so it makes things really tight.
“All we can do is take it one game at a time and obviously look to win every game.
“We know it's a tough task, but we believe as a squad that we can finish the season strongly.
“I'm feeling good fitness-wise. It's sort of match fitness I’m needing as I was feeling a wee bit leggy towards the end of the game on Saturday, but that's probably as expected.
“I’m just looking to keep on top of my fitness and for us to just kick on from now.
“That's what we're paid to do, isn't it? That's part and parcel of being a footballer in League Two.”
