Matthews ready to battle for cause

Ross Matthews has been left with a black eye, metal plates and multiple screws from a horrific facial injury – but the Raith Rovers midfielder insists there are no mental scars to hold him back.

The 23-year-old was sidelined for nearly two months after suffering a broken cheekbone and fractured eye-socket in the derby encounter with East Fife on August 31.

After surgery to insert three plates, held in place by a gruesome 14 screws, Matthews needed six weeks of recuperation before he could be thrown back into the action.

The Stark’s Park stalwart made his comeback in the return clash with East Fife a fortnight ago and started again last weekend as Rovers’ eightgame unbeaten run came to an end away to Peterhead.

And Matthews, who will close in on 200 appearances for Raith this season, insists the only remaining negative is the ribbing he has been getting from his team-mates.

Speaking ahead of today’s meeting with Stranraer, he said: “I’m feeling good. Because it was my face, luckily – well, maybe not looks-wise – I was able to do some fitness work even when I was injured.

“So, I kept my fitness up and it was just about getting my sharpness back. I got that in a couple of weeks’ training and thankfully got a spot back in the team.

“I wouldn’t have come back if I thought I wouldn’t be playing my normal game so I wasn’t worried about heading the ball and going into challenges, things like that. I’ve felt fine.

“The doctor said to me it would be six weeks and by the time I played it was over six weeks, so I was confident coming back.

“My cheekbone’s actually stronger than what it was before, so I’ve been fine going into the games.

“Obviously it was really painful at the time. Eating and stuff like that was difficult for the first week. Before I got the surgery it was pretty horrible.

“But after that it wasn’t too bad. When I looked in the mirror for the first time I thought I was going to be out for longer, so it was bad but I was lucky it wasn’t a major injury.

“I got three plates put in and 14 screws, so I’ve got quite a lot of metal in my face now!

“But they said they wouldn’t have to take them out.

“I’ve still got a wee bit of a black eye but I’m hoping that will go away in the next couple of weeks and I’ll be back to normal.

“I’ve had a few of my team-mates giving me new nicknames. Brad Spencer just likes to call me ‘Cheeks’ now and there’s a few others call me Quagmire from Family Guy. I’m sure there’ll be others as well.”

Raith dropped off the top of League One with defeat to Peterhead but Matthews insists John Mcglynn’s men are determined to get back on track in the first of four consecutive home matches in the cups and league.

He added: “The boys were on a pretty good run when I was injured. They were unbeaten in eight but that obviously came to an end last weekend.

“Hopefully we can go on another wee run. We need a string of good performances to make sure we stay up at the top end of the league.

“Everyone knows last weekend was a poor performance. We’ve watched it back and seen where we went wrong and we just need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Ross Matthews has suffered no ill effects on his return.