My kids are so used to seeing me in a knee brace. It has been so tough mentally... all I wanted to do every Sunday was rest my knee. It should be family and football. But it was family, football and my knee
When James McPake was sacked by Dundee his first thought wasn’t about finding work.
It was about being able to WALK.
His Dens Park exit surprised most people in the game, not least the man himself.
It was a body blow that left him numb and sore.
But that was not h i n g compared to the pain he was suffering in his shattered knee.
That’s why his priority wasn’t finding another job.
It was enlisting the help of top surgeon Andy Williams in the hope of being able to play with his children again.
McPake smashed his patella in a Dundee derby back in 2016 and it was never the same again.
It forced him to retire as a player but, even as a manager, it plagued his everyday life.
Last week he was unveiled as Dunfermline’s new gaffer and – despite being on crutches – there’s a spring in his step.
That’s because he’s finally on the road to recovery after a monster four- hour operation in London.
Williams is the guy who got Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk playing again and has also worked with British Olympian Tom Daley. But he’d rarely carried out surgery like what McPake had to endure.
After the blow of being fired by Dundee, then Covid delaying his knee op by a further seven weeks, the Pars boss is smiling again.
Not just because he’s now back at work.
But because he can look forward to having fun with his kids Ailey, Sophie and Grace.
In an exclusive interview with Mai lSport , McPa k e s a id : “Everyone knows about the tackle with John Rankin.
“Ranks is my mate and every time I have surgery, he texts to apologise! But it wasn’t his fault.
“At the time we worked so hard to get me back playing but it was damaged.
“It was broken in three different places and had to be wired together.
“I did the work to get back, had the wires taken out but then I refractured it on a bike.
“Eventually I went to Andy who – along with Dundee’s brilliant physio Gerry Docherty – is the reason I’m st i l l
d to be wante
I again .. I a dad get it had to Dawn for right kids and the
walking. Even after he’d taken out all the dead stuff in there, it wasn’t right . But then my quadricep tendon ruptured in training. I went to London and Williams repaired that in 2017.
“Again, I did the rehab but during a defensive dri ll at Dundee, I hit a ball sharply and felt a pop.
“Scans couldn’t tell us what happened because everything in my knee looked injured.
“When I came back I could still feel it and that’s when I called it a day as a player.
“At that point I just wanted to be a dad again.
“My kids are so used to seeing me like this, in a knee brace. My youngest, Grace, is now seeing it too. For my older two it has been a part of their life.
“I had a few years without it, including my spell as manager.
“But it has been getting worse. I’d been going to get it drained and injected.
“I was feeling the pain on the training pitch.
“It didn’t have a negative effect on my coa ching ability. But mentally it was tough. I’d come home and be on the laptop working but on an ice machine at the same time for my knee. And it was impacting the family.
“On a Sunday all I wanted to do was rest my knee.
“It should just be family and footbal l. But it was fami ly, football and my knee.
“I lost my job at Dundee on a Wednesday and booked in for surgery a week later.”
But just when McPake needed a pick- me- up he was dealt another blow as he sat in a London hotel room preparing for surgery.
The train journey home was one of the lowest points of his career. And at that stage getting back in the game was the last thing on his mind.
He said: “I had a consultation with Andy the day before which involved a PCR test.
“I was booked in for the next morning at Cromwell Hospital.
“But the phone rang at 7pm the night before and it was his secretary.
“She said I’d tested positive for Covid. I thought: ‘ That
can’t be right, I don’t have symptoms.’ I knew the positive test meant Andy couldn’t operate for another seven weeks.
“And my head was just gone at that point.
“I’d lost my job the week before, now I was alone in London wondering what to do next.
“I couldn’t believe it. I was so sickened I just got myself on to the sleeper train.
“I had to clear my head and was just desperate to get home.
“I was sickened by the game at that point.
“But the one good thing was that it gave me some thinking time, a chance to reflect on a lot of things.
“I hadn’t had that in 22 years and it helped me.
“Eventually I went back down to London and the damage was a lot worse than Andy had originally thought.
“I remember just before going to theatre he offered to phone Dawn to let her know I was OK.
“That showed his class. Here’s this world-renowned surgeon but he was willing to go and phone my missus. The work he did in one knee operation is like a career worth of ops.”
McPake has been on crutches, unable to put weight on his left leg for six weeks.
But with Dawn’s help and daily visits from mum Mary and sister-in-law Marion, he’ll be on his feet again soon.
Which is perfect timing given his new managerial gig at East End Park following the departure of John Hughes.
He said: “If I hadn’t got this done I’d have needed a knee replacement in three to five years. That’s what I was told.
“It would be similar to what Ian Durrant has done.
“Bearing in mind how long they last, at 37 I’d be looking at another TWO after that.
“We had to try to salvage this knee and Andy has done that.
“I could have carried on without getting it done.
“But I had to get it right for the sake of Dawn and the kids.
“Playing out the back with the kids was hurting me.
“I couldn’t trust myself to go on a trampoline with them or go to a soft play.
“It’ ll probably still ache at times for the rest of my life.
“But it was an issue I just had to fix.
“I’ve gone from a period when I was really low after losing the Dundee job and having this pain to getting it sorted and being excited about a new start.”