David McAllan could miss out on a Monarchs' reserve place for next year as he appears unlikely to be fit for the start of the season.
McAllan injured a knee ligament in a fall at Swindon in June. He made a quick recovery from a potentially career threatening injury and was back in the team, wearing a kneee-brace, before the end of August. He obviously came back rather too soon and after several falls was replaced by Brian Turner. He continued riding for Linlithgow and could have come back into the team after Turner suffered a wrist injury but for the controversial block on team changes after the start of Spetember. He did manage one of two appearances, replacing Blair Scott against Arena Essex in the League and coming in for Turner in the Scottish Cup home and away legs.
McAllan is due to go into an Edinburgh hospital next week for surgery to repair the damaged ligament, which if all goes well will restore him to full fitness. It was originally hoped that the surgery would have been carried out a month or two back. He has suffered from two cancellations so far and is hoping that it will go ahead this time. It is likely that he will be out of action for at least three months after the surgery. This would mean that he would miss the start of the season in mid-March. This could result in him not being named in the Monarchs' team for 2000.
McAllan commented in the Edinburgh Evening News:
"I've told Monarchs I'm not that worried about a team place. The main thing is to concentrate on getting myself fully fit again. Afeter all I've got my whole future in front on me."
"The surgeons are simply going to repair my central ligament. I've been told that there is a 95 per cent success rate. Even if the operation does fail, my knee won't be any worse than it is now, which means I'll still be able to ride."
"It will be three months before I'm fit. Although I will probably miss the start of the new season, Monarchs advised me to have the surgery done. I'm not bothered about my reserve berth. I rushed back to action last year and it did me no good. However I'm confident everything will turn out fine and don't foresee any problems."
Monarchs have two options to deal with this problem. One would involve naming McAllan in their starting one-to-seven and using a Conference League rider, such as Derek Sneddon, as a stand-in for the early matches. Alternatively another rider could be selected. Assuming that Peter Carr, Ross Brady, Blair Scott, and a new three-point rider are signed, there will be just under four points available to fill this final reserve spot. Brian Turner would be a popular candidate if not required by Glasgow.
This reserve spot is likely to be absolutely critical for Monarchs in the coming season. In 1999, first Ross Brady, then Stewart McDonald, and finally Blair Scott all scored well from the number seven position. This took pressure off the various occupiers of the number six berth including David McAllan.
There is still no news of the signature of Monarchs mystery overseas rider, assumed to be Australian. Hopefully with things getting back to normal after the new year break there will sonn be developments.