Alan Cook hopes he has overcome the worst of his injury problems and can help Peterhead kick-start their season.
Cook made his first appearance in nearly two months for the Blue Toon in the weekend defeat to East Fife, after getting to the bottom of a painful shin problem.
The Peterhead midfielder spent several weeks in a boot trying to rehab the injury, for which he had seen a specialist at Ross Hall Hospital in Glasgow.
He has had to watch on as his team-mate stumble out of the blocks, losing five on the bounce after winning their league opener against Alloa Athletic.
Alan Cook made his return from injury on Saturday, but won't be rushed back into the starting XI says manager Jim McInallyhttps://t.co/UubS7A6tia pic.twitter.com/ErnbSfLYHP
— Peterhead FC (@pfcofficial) September 6, 2021
Cook said: “It’s good to get back – it’s been a bit of a mare for the whole of 21 but I was delighted to get minutes on Saturday and hopefully it can be the first of many.
“I noticed it a couple of weeks into pre-season and played through it initially. I tried to persevere with it but it got to a point where I couldn’t play or train anymore.
“It was similar in symptoms to bone bruising and I was taking direct blows to the spot where I had issues. I would wake up in a morning after training and games in quite a lot of discomfort and those symptoms continued to grow.
“It was on the way to being a stress fracture. The club have been great with me and gave me the green light to see a specialist.
“They gave me an MRI but the length of time it took to be seen, even at a private hospital, I had come through the recovery period for that kind of injury.
“The boot is the standard treatment for that kind of injury. Greig (Smith) the physio mentioned they had one at the club and for me to wear it as much as possible.
“It did seem to reduce the movement. With the injury it was a case of staying off my feet, keeping it elevated and icing it. It’s a bit tender after Saturday but I’m putting that down to the length of time I’ve been out.”
It has proved a complicated year for Cook, who missed two months of action due to a knee injury earlier in the year.
He added: “I’ve just not had much luck with two pretty serious injuries. It happens to a lot of players but you can’t let it get you down.
“All you can do is do the right things and hopefully that’s me coming out the other side of it now.”
Peterhead face Clyde at Balmoor on Saturday looking to claim their first league win since the end of July.
Cook said: “I would love to be involved and help play my part. The boys are going through a wee bit of a rough time at the moment but we’ve got to come out of it at some point.
“The bottom line is it’s a results-driven business. We need to get results and get them soon. We’ve got quality but we have to got to deliver on that.
“I would back us against the majority of teams at our level. For whatever reason we’ve just not picked up results.”
