Rae back and ready to help Shire cause
He admits there are few things worse than having to watch on helplessly from the sidelines.
But now Dan Rae is feeling fit and ready to haul Perthshire up the standings after fully recovering from a torn cartilage injury.
The experienced centre returned in the club’s most recent fixture against West of Scotland after spending two months out with his knee problem.
Now he’s hoping the Eagles can produce a number of crackers as the winter runin heats up through to the Christmas break.
“Thankfully it seems to have been a minor tear and I’ve not needed surgery,” Rae explained to the Perthshire Advertiser.
“The physio first thought it would be six to eight weeks so being able to hit that target was good. The recovery all went quite smoothly.
“The hardest part was getting the swelling to go down. It’s the longest injury I’ve had and to pick it up so early in the season was especially annoying.
“I thought I had come into pre-season and the start of the season really well after doing a lot in the gym and with the coaches.
“I was able to get down to watch most of the home games and frustrating was probably an understatement.
“The guys were giving their best but you can’t help slog it out with them. There is not a worse feeling when you see the guys’ heads drop.”
On his recent comeback, Rae added: “In the first five minutes I was a wee bit cautious. But when I made the first tackle that went out the window.
“The adrenaline and occasion took over and I was absolutely fine for the rest of game.”
Shire, whose game with Strathmore was frozen out last weekend, make the laborious trip north for a league fixture with Caithness on Saturday.
But the five-hour plus one way journey isn’t a problem if a positive result comes back down the road.
“It was a close one last time with Caithness up there, winning with the last kick of the ball,” Rae said.
“They have maybe not had the best start, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to have a strong finish. They finished above us last season.
“But we’re looking to go up there and take a win. It’s one of the games we’ve targeted where we need to take points from.
“It can be a big sacrifice for the guys but a lot of it is part of the enjoyment.
“It’s a long bus journey up, but not so long back if you can grab a win. There can be quite a bit of celebration and laughter on the way back.”
Shire coach Alan Clark will travel with a strong squad for the fixture.
He is looking to watch his players rise up the standings in the coming weeks and pull themselves away from the relegation zone.
Clark told the Perthshire Advertiser: “It’s not a team you go up expecting to thump.
“And they are always going to be competitive on their home patch.
“They tend to have more players available to them when at home, so we’re not expecting an easy ride at all.
“Our availability is pretty good but there are a few positions that we’re going to have to think a little more creatively about this weekend.
“We’ve set ourselves targets until the Christmas break and generally now we are playing teams around us.
“We’re looking at wins and would like to elevate ourselves up the table. We want to be sitting mid-table as opposed to 10th.”