Fans group steps in to help Dark Blues

INVESTMENT: Dinner profits to be used to buy medical system

The Dundee Supporters’ Association have agreed to buy a piece of innovative medical equipment used by the British Lions and top golfer Rory McIlroy to help aid the recovery of injured players such as Craig Wighton.

The fans intend to use the profits from last season’s Player of the Year dinner to buy a Game Ready system for the club.

Using only ice and water, it provides continuous cold therapy to the affected area of the body and crucially is also portable.

The system, which is also backed by testimonials from the likes of Dame Kelly Holmes, accelerates recovery and the DSA were more than happy to agree to give the club £5,000 to purchase one.

With highly-rated youngster Wighton set to undergo an operation on a ruptured cruciate and James McPake as well as Julen Etxabeguren recovering from long-term knee and achilles injuries respectively, they believe buying the Game Ready kit will prove a wise investment.

Association chairman Kenny Ross said: “For the last three years, the DSA have been keen to reinvest the profits from the Player of the Year dinner back into the club.

“Rather than just handing over a cheque, we have looked to buy something that the club could use.

“Last season, our manager at the time Paul Hartley suggested that we could purchase a Game Ready system.

“It has been used by the British Lions and Rory McIlroy and the club had been renting one to help James McPake recover from his knee injury.

“It is portable so at night, James could take it home and sit with it on his knee while he was watching the TV.

“It was also being used by Julen to help his recovery from his achilles op.

“Of course, Neil McCann is now the manager but he was also really keen for us to buy the £5,000 system especially after Craig Wighton suffered his recent cruciate injury. I contacted the secretaries of the 35 clubs in the association but it was an easy sell and they agreed unanimously to buy the system for the club.

“We made £5,500 profit from the dinner so it is great to be able to plough this money back into the club to hopefully help our players recover from these long-term injuries and get back out on to the park as soon as possible.”

Meanwhile, the deadline for Dundee season ticket holders to purchase their seat for next week’s cup derby has been extended until close of sales after the league game against Ross County on Saturday. Remaining seats will go on sale to the general public from Sunday.

The club shop will be open from 10am7pm today, 10am-5pm tomorrow, and on Saturday from 10am-3pm (derby sales suspended from 2pm) and then from 4.45pm.