ARTHURLIE manager Chris Mackie fears Scott Gair’s football career could be over after the defender suffered a horror knee injury.

The 26-year-old had been playing through the pain barrier for the Barrhead side but broke down in training after hitting a routine shot. The initial diagnosis was a dislocated knee, but surgery found damage to his cartilage, medial and cruciate ligaments.

Gair now faces a long rehabilitation and Mackie conceded the chances of him returning to football are slim.

He said: “He’s been struggling with his knee for eight or nine weeks but he’s been playing through it. He trained before we played Kilwinning and his knee dislocated, it was really innocuous, he hit a shot and then just fell to the ground.

“He went straight to the hospital and it turned out he needed surgery. They found out he has also done his medial ligament and his cruciate ligament, his whole knee is all over the place.

“It’s probably looking like his career might be over. He’s going to have a lot of time off his work, Scott’s self employed so that is something he has to consider because it is a long rehab if he was to get back to a condition where he could play, and even then it’s not certain to work.

“It’s a major blow because Scott is a smashing player and we had him signed up for next season.”

After three wins out of three as Lie manager Mackie tasted defeat for the first time as Dunterlie boss with a bruising 6-1 loss to Pollok on Saturday.

However Mackie was not too downbeat with the result after his side kept the scores level from a long period despite being down to nine men.

He said: “For 40 minutes of the first half we were in front and looked the stronger side. The two red cards have a massive impact but we can have no complaints about the decisions.

“We held out well considering we were two men down, but once they scored with 15 minutes to go to make it 2-1, I felt I had to sacrifice a defender to try and nick something. It’s gone against us because we conceded two quick goals.

“We had to risk conceding more at that stage to have a chance at getting anything.”