Peterhead defender Jason Brown is known as a pretty fearless competitor. But the head injury he suffered earlier this season stopped him in his tracks.
Brown suffered the knock against Stirling Albion at the end of July and it has taken him a while to get back up to full speed again.
He returned against on August 20 but was taken off after an hour. Since then he has not missed a minute for Peterhead.
The Brown family have been through something similar before. His older brother Jordon was taken to hospital after a worrying collision playing for Cove Rangers in 2018, upon the opening of the Balmoral Stadium.
Brown junior’s recollection of the day is pretty much non-existent, a stark reminder of how scary the incident was.
“As time goes by, you look back and realise it was quite a bad one,” said Brown. “To this day, I don’t have much recollection of what happened. It’s blank in my memory which tells you it was pretty serious.
“You couldn’t write it – obviously Jordon had that bad one with Andy Considine when Cove were opening their stadium. Seeing it before, that added a wee bit of extra worry into it.
“But I’m all good now and I’ve had no issues afterwards. It’s not holding me back, which is a good thing.
“Libby, from Back Onside, has been superb with me. She’s been in contact regularly making sure I have had no recurring side-issues from it.
“After three or four days I felt like I could do some sort of training, but it was under strict supervision that I was away from contact for three or four weeks. It was hard at the time but looking back now, it was the right decision.
“They’re looking into head injuries more now which is really good, as it can help prevent long-term health issues. I’ve got no complaints with the way I was looked after, it was first-class.
“The club give a lot to us as players and they have for years. We want to repay them with that care and passion on the pitch. In my five years here, I’ve not had a bad word to say about them.”
Upon his return to the side, Brown has found himself amid challenging times at Balmoor.
They sit bottom of League One with just one win to their name all season. Injuries and huge squad turnover have repeatedly been cited as playing a key part in their alarming slump.
Peterhead have one win to their name all season and have back-to-back home games coming up, with Alloa Athletic on Saturday and then FC Edinburgh next week.
“It’s been a tough period for everyone at the club,” said Brown. “Things aren’t going the way we’d want them to be; we’ve had a lot of problems and bad-luck situations that haven’t helped.
“You still need to try and find positives because no doubt there are positives to take out of any situation. We need to build on the things we are doing well and rectify the things that aren’t going well.
Injury Update ⬇️https://t.co/j3qE8JbDc7 pic.twitter.com/XrofCj0kXB
— Peterhead FC (@pfcofficial) October 18, 2022
“The turnover in players shows how much quality we lost from last year. Players like Scott Brown, Si Ferry and Grant Savoury – it’s as challenging as it has been during my time at the club but it’s a challenge I’m up for.
“There’s no beating around the bush, we need to start picking up points. We’re in October now and we’ve not got enough points to get us where we’d like to be.
“At home we need to start picking up more wins. We need to use Balmoor as a tough place to come; this year it’s been a bit easier for teams to come and play their football.
“It’s one of the things we’ve addressed, to get back to make it a real hard afternoon for teams.”
