Gary Fraser has endured a nightmare over the last two seasons on the injury front, but he is finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel as he approaches a return to the Partick Thistle first-team.
The midfielder has been out since April with a knee injury, which came on the back of lengthy lay-offs for a foot injury and other knee problems.
He admits that it hasn’t always been easy to watch on from the side-lines, but such is the lift in his spirits of late he has even been enjoying cheering on his teammates since the season began.
His mood will lift even further if he can get back into the side soon to help them turn some of their creditable performances into points to start climbing the Premiership table.
“I’m feeling much better,” Fraser said. “It’s good to be back running and finally making a step forward.
“I feel like I’ve turned a corner and it’s been really good recently.
“I feel as if I’m aiming for something now whereas at the start it can be difficult to see where the light at the end of the tunnel is coming from.
“Hopefully I’ll be in the first-team squad again within the next month or so.
“I’ll need to get back training for a full two weeks and then get a couple of games with the under-20s before I can think about breaking back in, but I’m really looking forward to that.
“I just want to pull the strip back on. I haven’t played in ages and probably what I’m looking forward to the most is just kicking the ball again.
“It’s murder being injured, it’s the worst thing ever.
“I was never injured up until the last year and a half or so and then they’ve all come one after the other, but hopefully that’s my bad luck out of the way now.
“The physio has been top drawer looking after me, so I need to thank him for that.”
Fraser has been buoyed by what he has seen from the stand in Partick Thistle’s opening fixtures, and the form of a returning teammate has whet his appetite even further for his comeback.
“We’re looking well so far this season,” he said. “It’s been good watching the boys this season and I think we’ve got a good chance of doing well.
“It’s great to see Squiddy [Chris Erskine] back, it’s like he’s never been away.
“He's a great player and as a midfielder I like playing with him because he gives you another option to get him on the ball.
“I’m really looking forward to playing with him again.”
The fact that the Partick Thistle midfield is functioning so well without some of the talent currently unavailable to it is testament to the depth of Alan Archibald’s squad.
There can’t be many sides in the country who would absorb the loss of key players like Fraser and Stuart Bannigan to the treatment table so well, a fact not lost on Fraser himself.
He said: “Obviously we’re missing Banzo and that’s a big loss to the club, but we’ve got a lot of depth in midfield with the likes of Ryan Edwards, Abdul Osman and Sean Welsh. They’re all good players.
“It will be good to get back amongst that and see where that takes us.
“When we first came up as well I thought that was a really good team we had, but I think this is definitely the best squad I’ve seen since I’ve been here.
“I’m looking forward to being a part of it. I just want to get on the pitch and make a contribution again.”
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