DEAN SHIELS has paid tribute to physio Stevie Walker for the work he has done with him over the last few months following his scoring return to the side on Saturday. The Northern Ireland international came on as a substitute for Robbie Crawford 20 minutes from the end of the League One opener with Brechin. With five minutes to go, he capped his comeback from a medial knee ligament injury with a fine curled effort which sealed a 4-1 victory over City. His reaction to that saw him run straight to Walker in the Gers technical area and the 28-year-old’s delight at making such a big impact was clear. It has been a long road to recovery for Shiels, who was hurt in the 2-1 home loss to Annan Athletic on March 9. Indeed, he has had to take a new approach as a result and is indebted to a number of people behind the scenes at Murray Park for their help. Shiels said: “Any injury for any footballer is very frustrating but it has been good for me to take a step back and do a lot of extra training, doing different types of training too. “Hopefully I’m coming back stronger as a result. I’ve done a lot of core work and I’ve strengthened the glutes and the areas around the knee. “That has built up parts I haven’t worked on before and I feel a lot stronger. I’ve put on four or five kilos of muscle from last year which will hopefully help. “In that respect, Stevie has been great. We’ve been to London on the train a couple of times with each other and we’ve had early mornings and late afternoons working together. “We have got my knee strong again and we basically started from scratch, where I was learning to walk properly again on the leg. “The staff in general have been great with me. They’ve kept my morale up when I’ve been down and guys like Jimmy Bell and Davie Lavery have kept my spirits going. “It means a lot to a player when they score a goal after an injury. I wanted to share that moment with them because of their help to me.” Shiels’ return was a welcome shock to many given he hadn’t played in any bounce games prior to the weekend, with the player himself as taken aback as anyone. He added: “I was surprised to get a chance. The manager pulled me in and asked if I thought I could go on the bench. “Of course, I was delighted with that and I said to him I’d really like that. You’re not going to turn down any chance to play for Rangers. “It was great to just pull on a blue shirt again. It was a great feeling just to get back on the pitch as well. It is five months now since my injury and it was good to be back.”
Posted on: Tue, 13 Aug 2013 15:44:56 +0000
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