It has been revealed today that Stevie Hislop has had surgery to repair cartilage damage in his knee on Monday and is expected to be out for a minimum of six weeks. He picked up the injury during the play-off game at home to Airdrie.

This is the same injury that forced Silvestro and Pelosi out for half of last season

I wouldn't say this is a massive loss considering we still have Weir, Wardlaw, Bryce and Tod who can all play up front but obviously you want your whole squad fit for the start of a new season.

Shite.

Hopefully he'll be back by the start of the season, we need him up there I think. Someone to take the game by the scruff of the neck whewn the going gets tough.

Tod and Weir didn't score many last season, Bryce is 20 and inexperienced and as for Wardlaw...

Losing Hislop is a blow. I think he's pretty decent, I'd have him up front for us -I think he'd be a good partner for Lex Williams.

I can't keep up, I thought Hislop was pish and hated by the fans, is he great now ?

Monster I will have you know according to some on the official Raith site, Bryce is a shoe in for 20 goals this season

Hmmm...remember what happened when Connor and Reilly filled our squad with Juniors?

Is Bryce not the young lad from the youth team?

More junior than Junior.

Except that piling the pressure on Bryce to succeed at his age isn't a great idea, Tod is a geriatric, therefore, those two guys are really only good for short bursts, we'll be relying largely on Weir and wardlaw until Hislop is back on his feet.

In fairness, Weir was our top-scorer last year with 12 goals. Bryce is only about 17 or 18 and has been playing against tired defences though he has scored a few. Agree with you though, losing Hislop is a blow.

Surely there's a chance of Hislop making it back in time for the start of the season? I'm not expecting him to, but you never know your luck...

Edit- Why are people classing Andy Tod as a striker? I think he played there about five times last season, at the start in the cups and the last game at Airdrie when Hislop was injured. He won't play up front this season, I don't think.

Too bad about Hislop. Sure, his contribution isnt always great but he's about the best we've got. I hope he isnt out for as long as feared.

Why are we panicking?

He's out for 6 weeks, we have about that till the season begins and we have another 4 strikers.

Is Wardlaw not a right midfielder?

Left back (on the bench) isn't he?

Shock!

But will he be fit enough to start the season? I don't know what his training reigime will be like during the aftermath of the surgery but I seriously doubt it will be as high an intensity of actual pre-season training. I'd expect it would then take him a few more weeks to get up to match fitness.

Remember Lumsden last season? Had to go through an entire pre-season after recovering from injury and still was nowhere near match sharpness.

Hope for the best though, as he's a player that we could really do with.

The boo-boys will be pissed off about this.

This isn't good news, for all his limitations he's our best player up front.

At least it's the right time for it to need done, hopefully he'll be fully fit not long into the season.

He'll be short of fitness - look at what happened to Lumsden last season when he didn't get a good pre-season behind him.

I'd say Hislop is our best player upfront, I hope he manages to somehow get himself fit for the start of the season. He will lack match practice though, I just hope he copes better than Lumsden did last season from a similar situation.

If anyone needs a cartilage Op' then now is definately the best time for it, I expect he'll miss the start of the season by not being match fit but that's all. Most modern day C'ge Op's are key-hole stuff and the recovery time is usually 4-6 weeks unless there are complications. I'd reasonably expect to see him on the bench lloking for match fitness in early Sept if not May.

As for Bryce breing the new messiah, I think McGlynn will use him sparingly like Nichol did with Cameron and Crawford in the beginning. I see him as being in the Craigy Brewster mould, and only hope he stays for at least another season and a half. I'd hate for him to score a few and then get sold on at Christmas for peanuts.

I think that given the correct training, time and patience Bryce will turn out to be some player.
I just hope that our support doesn't place too much pressure on him.

This is the 1st time he's been injured with us i think.

cant see Tod being used as as striker this season not when we have Wadlaw, Bryce and Weir.

Agreed we shouldnt be putting too much pressure on Bryce, he will be a bit part player this season. Can you imagine what would happen to his confidence if he started a game at starks and the crowd started getting on his back?

In the games I saw last season Andy Tod was far more effective up front than in defence.

As for Bryce I see him in the (WB shows his age) Alan Logan role, of coming on for the last 20 minutes, to run at defences, a role he filled last season to great effect.

That's the start of them.

I can't agree with any argument for not putting pressure on Bryce. So what he is only 20. By this time Ronaldo (the brazilian) had played in 2 world cup finals and won 1. 20 is not young in footballing terms, look at the 2 young lads at Hamilton!
If he hasn't got the ability by 20 when will he?
If he can't handle the crowd or a bit of abuse then his temprement has to be questioned. By the age of 20 he should be able to handle himself in his chosen career.
I would get him thrown in at the deep end and lets see if he sinks or swims. I could just be the making of the lad. He must be choking for a game. If I was him I would be getting frustrated at being held back by the strikers we have. After all they are hardly goal machines are they?

Re Ronaldo/Ronaldinho/Rooney etc etc, Even in the case of Dair, Crawford, Cameron & the young Hamilton lads these guys were all introduced into teams that were doing well not struggling against relegation or the cut throat lpromotoin or die cauldron that Raith home games were last season.

20-40,000 people may give a general outcry when a youngster does something wrong but at SP the individuals can ofter hear every negative word.

As I understand it the injury was obtained in the last game of the season SIX WEEKS AGO.

Now unless I have missed something why has it taken until now to get the operation done?

Thats rehabilitation time lost which could be the difference between him making the start of the new season and not.

I am sure the surgeon concerned raced Hislop as far up the waiting list as could, after all he is a scottish second division centre forward.

So our players are not insured then is what you are saying? NHS was it?

Players are insured, otherwise we would be booted out of the SFL, the insurance normally covers the wages the club are due the player, rather than cost of operations. Again this depends on the level of cover we have, and given our situation I doubt we would have a Rolls Royce deal.

I have no idea how it was done either private or NHS, but what would be the point of Raith paying a few grand for it, if the NHS route saved money and only resulted in the player being out for a few weeks.

Anyway I'm off to the freezers at work to see if I can find his cartilage

Wow, a serious answer to a serious question, you feeling ok WB?

As you have just admitted you have no more knowledge of the type of cover the club has than I do, hence why I asked if it was done NHS or not? I would have thought if it was the NHS waiting list, is on average, a helluva lot more than 6 weeks.

I am always serious, infact my serious nature is interpreted by some as negativity.

Never facetious as well as negative then?

*checks thesaurus*

No never.

For those saying that Lee Bryce is 20, he isn't. He's still 17, possibly 18.

Exactly what i was going to say. He played for the 19's this year, and is still eligible to do so next year.

I think you've just lost 90% of the Rovers fans on this site

And from the looks of things he will still be playing for the U19's next season. From speaking to Lee he has stated McGlynn still wants to use him in the U19's. I can't see Lee getting many first team games and he'll probably feature about as much as he did last season during the next campaign.

I thought that might be the case. I haven't seen anything from McGlynn saying he'd be using Bryce more, or that he'd be playing in the first team regularly. I imagine he'll find a place on the bench quite often, but not ahead of Weir/Hislop/Wardlaw.

Watched Bryce at the tail end of last season "Impressed" Surely when he gets on and scores a few the manager will play him more?

If he gets any less than 30 goals next season he can forget his big move to Bayview the following year.

Oxymoron Alert!!!! Big and Bayview


or maybe just Moron Alert

I dont like to see any player injured but what amazes me is that the RR fans actually rate this guy. Any time i have saw him all he does is bicker and fight with the fans and i mean his own fans. This guy is a first class bawbag but i hope he has a speedy recovery.


Anyway whats his goal return like ..............?

i think hislop as the season progressed so did he , i think lot time with the fans on his back constantly didnt help , but he scored some important goals for us ...remember dingwall !! i think he will be good player for us if played with right person next year ! hope he is back in time to score against the widtinks !!!

With any sort of service from midfield and a half decent understanding with his strike partner I think he will do very well this season......... but only if he can stay clear of injury (big if!).

Renton was bragging on Saturday about how the league was already won by Rovers and all the other teams might as well not bother turning up!

He also said Lee Bryce will score well over 20, possibly 30 goals.

Didn't I just laugh that off when you told me

To be fair, I'm pretty sure Renton was being a tad sarcastic.

If the majority of posters on this forum could have met the Rovers fans on Saturday night they wouldn't hink them half as arrogant as they are made to appear on here. About as confident of their teams title success as....well....me, really.

Aye, then you bought me a pint and I conceded the title to Ayr

Hislop is the most annoyin player i have ever watched in my life.He will be through on goal one on one umpteen times and miss...then he will go and bang in a really important goal from three yards out when nobody else looked like scorin...its ridiculous.

Hopefully with better service he will start better and get the fans (including myself at times) off his back....generate confidence...stop missing ones any striker should class as bread and butter.

Good idea by mcglynn to put him on a contract that gives him an extra years deal if he plays over a certain number of games...will motivate him to do well hopefully as can't see him moving higher up than where he is at his age now.

In all honesty though if he only scores 8 goals in four 2-0 victories against east fife and gestures to willy gray and paul mcflangepus (possible violent conduct sending off coz he is a total ned) i'll hail him as a legend evermore