Skipper Lee to undergo ankle op in close season

Club captain Lee Kilday has learned that he will require an operation during the close season in order to solve a long-standing ankle issue.

The resilient 25-year-old has been able to play through the pain over the course of the current campaign, including the full 90 minutes of Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Ayr United despite an awkward landing on his right leg during the game.

However, skipper Kilday, whose current contract runs until May 2018, recently underwent a scan to get to the bottom of the problem and will see out the season before going under the knife.

He told gmfc.net: “I went and saw the specialist the other week and I’m going to get an operation in the summer. It’s nothing to worry about, nothing major; I can play through it just now. It’s just about getting it taken care of.

“I can still feel wee niggles in the ankle but it’s actually probably the best it has felt in a while recently. It’s just about managing it in training and getting through to the end of the season.

“The operation involves shaving a wee bit of the ankle bone shaved away and sewing the tendon up, so I’ll get that done in the summer. The recovery shouldn’t be too bad and they expect me to be back midway through pre-season.”

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Soldiering on … Lee finished the game despite this painful landing against Ayr on Saturday                  © Gary Bradley

Ton have drawn three and lost four of their last seven Championship outings, but Kilday reckons every team is likely to have a sticky patch over the season and that the team are aiming to rediscover their form heading into the play-offs.

He added: “I thought we dominated large spells of the game, it’s just that bit of luck isn’t going for us at the moment. Apart from the St Mirren game, there’s been hard luck in front of goal. I think that’s been typical over the last few games.

“We’ve not had that fluency that we had in the previous few months and it’s about trying to get that back. Obviously we’ve not played as well as we had been, but that happens at times in the season and you need to ride it out.

“Every team goes through a bad spell, it happens in any sport when things don’t go your way, so it’s all about how you come back from it. We’ll be looking to try and rectify it and get our form back and finish as well as we can.”

 

Images: Gary Bradley