Forres footballer is all muscle

Injured Forres Mechanics forward Lee Fraser has had to step down part of his recovery programme due to excess muscle growth in his good leg! The 19 year old bricklayer gained an incredible 4cm of muscle mass on his thighs in just one week and has been told to go easy on the weights to prevent him becoming the Roberto Carlos of the SHFL.

Talking to the Gazette the Mechanics manager Charlie Rowley revealed that the Mechanics Clubman of the Year is now 85% along the way with the rehabilitation programme that has been set for him and could return to training during the festive period.

“Lee is improving on a weekly basis.” Rowley said, “He is now up to the 85% point of the rehabilitation programme Greig Smith set for him but he has had to slow down. The programme was designed for both legs working in tandem but he has had to come off that and focus purely on the bad leg because he was gaining too much muscle.

“Two weeks ago he gained 1cm of mass on the thigh of the injured leg and 4cm on his good one, and it is not as though he was a wee lad by any stretch of the imagination so we have to be careful that he doesn’t push it too much

“You can tell from body language and his mannerisms that he knows he is getting better but we wouldn’t be contemplating taking him back into our training sessions at this stage. There was word that may occur at about Christmas but this is where we as a club need to come into our own.

“We don’t want to rush him back and cause a set back. It will be a case of gauging how he is feeling and having conversations with Greig to ensure things are don’t the right way, it certainly wont be a case of being ready to train then two weeks later managing to play.”

With another postponement at the weekend it looks as though Lee may well have the opportunity to feature in a number of games before the end of the season. Having seen the Rothes game just beat the weather a fortnight earlier the manager had mixed feelings about the weekend postponement at Christie Park.

“Obviously you want to get games going ahead but maybe this gives us a wee bit extra time to get back on track from the week before. I don’t think it will do us any harm. On paper we have a slightly better chance of getting three points facing Fort William at home rather than going away to the team that were sitting 2nd in the table.

“The game against the Fort offers us the chance to put in a good performance and to start to build some momentum but in fairness to them they have done pretty well in the last couple of weeks. Huntly got a late goal to beat them and it took Wick a good while to get their noses in front so we won’t be taking them lightly. We be fully prepared for the game.”

There are a number of doubts for the game with Graeme Grant pulling up with a calf strain in training, which will be assessed on Tuesday, Fraser Bremner having a knee injury carried forward from the Locos game and Ryan Mackintosh still struggling with a hamstring problem. Scott Lawrie could come back into contention having returned to training on Saturday.

While the Fort William game at Mosset Park this Saturday looks like a home banker the month of November is another difficult one for the Mechanics who will host Wick Academy and Buckie Thistle either side of a trip to Cove. Rowley admits it is not a season where the games will ever get any easier.

“It shows how competitive it is this season that there is no run of even two so called easier games. There are numerous teams you could put forward as title challengers at this stage and you would have to be stupid or naïve to call who would be right up there at the end of the season.

“Obviously there are teams who have experienced it and have been over the course like Cove Rangers but there are the teams who haven’t like Wick, Clach and the young lads at Huntly. The list goes on and on to be honest

“We just have to get the three points on Saturday and try to gain confidence and move on from there. Not winning games has made many of the matches doubly difficult, while last year you couldn’t wait to get the top teams in front of you in order to push them further down the pecking order but this year we have to try and catch them which is obviously tough, but we are not afraid of the challenge.”