Stewart McDonald's recovery from his horrific injury stained in August is a very slow one.
The plaster was removed from his wrist some three back but he is still unable to pull a pint in his father's pub. It could be a number of weeks before the swelling goes down.
"My wrist is still very sore and it looks as if there's a golf ball sticking out of it. It's pretty gruesome looking. I started physiotherapy this week because I have virtually no strength in it. I couldn't even hold on to a bike right now."
McDonald originally hoped to be back for the Playoffs, but admitted he had been rather optimistic.
"I think I understimated the seriousness of my accident. I knew my wrist was broken, but I didn't think it was a bad break. But I was told two bones were broken, one of them smashed to bits. I recieved a bone graft to repair one of them. My arteries and nerves were also damaged. My wrist is not nice to look at. But I've got to accept what happened and get on with it."
Since McDonald's injury, Monarchs have really struggled for points at the very tricky number two position. A spell using rider replacement failed to deliver. Justin Elkins was signed otherwise Monarchs would have had to use a Conference League replacement as McDonald would have dropped to reserve with the September Green Sheets. Elkins mechanical problems prevented him from scoring many points. Rider replacement during Elkins's injury and after his retirement have also has not produced many points.
"It's really annoying to me that I have been unable to play my part for the team over the last few weeks. I've missed out on three finals which has been frustrating. And no disrespect to Justin but he's just not done the job. With Brian Turner also getting hurt, we've suffered pretty badly with injuries. We've had no luck."
"If only I had stayed on my bike that night I'm sure, if everybody was going well, we would have won more matches that really counted."
The Premier League was almost certainly beyond Edinburgh by the time of McDonald's injury but the Premier National Trophy stands out as one that got away.
Stewart plans to relax during the winter before making any decisions as to where he will ride next year.