LIAM Fox was an ever-present in the Livingston first team in the first half of the season until a serious training ground injury ruled him out of action.

Having damaged both his lateral knee ligament and his hamstring tendon, in what was only manager Paul Hegarty's second training session in December, the midfielder needed an operation just before Christmas and looked set to miss the rest of the season as part of his recovery.

He's now back in off-field training though, working on healing his injured knee and maintaining his upper body strength, so we caught up with him to find out how his recovery is coming along.

"I've just returned to training on the bike, trying to build my leg muscles back up that wasted away because of the operation." says Liam, "It's a frustrating time, but these things happen. Players have had worse injuries than me, so I will just have to work extra hard to get back into contention.

"I was injured on 8 December, so that's eight weeks I've been out the team now and it happened straight after the new manager came in, during his second training session. I then had my operation just before Christmas, so I'm still some way away from a comeback yet.

"I am pleased with my recovery so far. The first few weeks after the operation, obviously it was very sore and my leg was straight all the time. That made it difficult to get about the place and it was an inconvenience - a bit of a pain in the backside to be honest!

"But I like hard work and that's got to be a positive thing as I look to recover. If the physio tells me to do four sets of an exercise, I'll be trying to do six to get myself that little bit fitter and stronger.

"I have a date in my head for when I might be fit again, but I don't want to say it in case something happens and I have a setback. I am pretty confident I will be back before the end of the season.

"The physio, David Mennie, thinks I am ahead of schedule but I don't want to do too much and try to come back too quickly. I am dying to get back and impress the new boss."

Find out more about Liam's recovery in this weekend's edition of ROAR, Livingston FC's matchday magazine. Priced at £2.50, it is available from various sellers in and around the stadium.