Each day's another brick in Lee's wall

LOOK out Highland League defences – Forres Mechanics’ strike ace Lee Fraser is ready to be unleashed after a frustrating year out through injury.

A horror injury last January when the 19-year-old broke his kneecap in three places left some people doubting he could ever return to his goalscoring best on a football field.

Even when he returned to training in the New Year, a long road to recovery was ahead of the Burghead brickie and the prospect of him playing this season was remote to say the least.

But Fraser’s progress has been so swift this year, his manager Charlie Rowley is now ready to blood him in friendly matches with a view to featuring him in full matches soon.

That was just the news the teenager was looking for, and he admits he cannot wait to get back on the pitch and put his repaired knee to the test.

“Training feels like any normal week now, and instead of thinking about the injury I’m thinking that I need to perform well to get back into the team,” he said.

“Charlie spoke to me about a friendly so I’m looking forward to when that goes ahead. That will be the big tester for me just to be involved in a competitive game.

“When it’s just training, the boys in the team know I’ve had an injury and maybe go soft on me and not try to tackle me. But playing against other teams, they won’t know that so it will be competitive and will give me a real confidence-booster if nothing goes wrong.”

Lee struck 18 goals in his first 20 matches of last season and helped fire Forres to the top of the Highland League, when disaster struck on January 10.

At an indoor training session at Forres Academy, his knee smashed against a wall and he was left in agony with a triple fracture.

Full story in Northern Scot print version.