Wick's Alan Farquhar aiming to play again before the end of Highland League season as he recovers from injury
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Alan Farquhar is gearing up for an important few weeks in his recovery from a knee injury that has caused him to miss almost all of Wick Academy's Highland League campaign so far.
The experienced central defender, who turned 34 last week, is determined not to rush his comeback but he hopes to play again before the end of the season. He has been doing plenty of running to build up his fitness and says February is “the big test” as he starts more intensive training.
Farquhar damaged his right knee in August during Academy's 2-1 defeat at Lossiemouth – the same ground where he made his debut for the club in 2009.
“I was running backwards for a header,” he recalled. “When I headed it, it was just the way I landed on one leg – I got a big crack on my knee and that was it.
“My wait for a scan was nearly three months, so in that time I was doing all the usual sort of rehab stuff of building it back up and getting myself back to basic mobility.”
It emerged that he had suffered a grade two tear of the cruciate ligament.
He returned to training with the squad a couple of weeks ago.
“I've done no contact stuff, and twisting and turning I'm doing gradually," he said. "I'm feeling it a bit, but that's just part of the step and hopefully I'll get a game or two before the season finishes.
“Speaking to Gaz [manager Gary Manson], he is not putting any pressure on to be back. He is wanting me to focus on just getting right, so it's either going to be getting back at it and getting a couple of games or I'll have a long, long pre-season.
“I've just got to see how I get on. I've been feeling quite good the last couple of weeks in training but the tough stuff comes in then with the twisting and turning.
“I hadn't even kicked a ball until last week, really. I can pass all right but when you go sideways and open your joint up there is a definite twinge there, which will strengthen up as I go along.”
Farquhar is hoping to start more intensive training from this week.
“I'm pretty confident I'll get back playing [this season] in some sort of way – that's definitely my aim. But I'm not going to be stupid about it either," he said.
“I think February will be the big test, a full month of training to see where I'm at, and I'll know if I'm heading in the right direction.
“Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get back in the squad or on the bench, just to get back in the warm-ups and involved again. It's quite hard when you're not playing.”
Farquhar, an electrical engineer at Dounreay, is now in his 13th season at Academy and has made 347 appearances. He was appointed club captain at the start of 2014/15.
His testimonial year has been delayed by the pandemic but plans are in hand for it to go ahead for season 2022/23.
Farquhar agrees with his team-mate and manager Gary Manson that holding on to eighth place is a reasonable target for the club over the remainder of the Highland League campaign.
Farquhar says Manson, assistant manager Michael Gray and first-team coach Gordon McDonald have done a “brilliant” job in getting the Scorries up the table after a slow start and despite having half a dozen or more key players either injured or unavailable week after week.
The 34-year-old defender was pleased to see Academy go on a run of eight wins from nine games between November and January.
“I was absolutely delighted for the whole squad,” Farquhar said. “When things aren't going well you get the usual comments – 'the manager's not good enough, the team is not good enough'. You hear all these things, but the reality was we were just unlucky.
“The team hasn't been the same at all. Every week there has been a change to the defence, a change to the midfield, a change to the strikeforce, and it's very hard to get any sort of continuity in a team if you get that.
“Everything that Gary and Michael and Gordie have been doing at the club is brilliant, with their playing philosophy and what they expect, how they speak about the next game and how they're going to approach it – all these sorts of things that were maybe not in place previously."
Farquhar was also keen to acknowledge the contribution of the club's goalkeeping coach James More.
“I think that [an eighth-place finish] would be fair for us, because the start was not good enough, it's as simple as that," he said. "We had a run of games where we were drawing or losing and it was just down to naive mistakes.
“When it's not going for you, the mistakes come pretty thick and fast. I think finishing in that position would be good.”
Farquhar was part of the Academy team that finished four points off top spot in 2012/13, with a 100 per cent home record in the league, and the side that won the North of Scotland Cup in 2015/16.
He believes Manson and his coaches are moving in the right direction with the players they have brought in following the loss of a number of seasoned campaigners in recent years.
“Don't get me wrong – there's a lot of experience missing between the Stevens [Joe and Grant] not being there, Sam Mackay leaving and losing players like Gary Weir,” Farquhar said.
“But going forward, I think they've definitely got a basis to work from. There are players in the county too that are good enough to come along – it's just whether they want to come and commit, because people forget how much of a commitment it is.
“I've said it before, it's 70 per cent attitude and 30 per cent ability.”
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