THE last 10 months have been a nightmare for Andy Graham. After successfully captaining Alloa to Championship survival in the 2018/19 campaign, the veteran centre-half was raring to go and pull off the same achievement again last season before disaster struck.

With a full pre-season under his belt, the then 36-year-old was ready to once again play a crucial role in the Wasps’ bid to beat the drop. He started in all but one of his side’s games up until December until a sharp pain in his back signalled a forthcoming spell on the sidelines. Little did he know, it would be the start of a 10-month spell where we would do virtually no exercise whatsoever, never mind kicking a ball.

After a few scans and the odd bit of poking and prodding from doctors, the Alloa skipper was diagnosed with a slipped disc, a condition where tissue between the bones in your spine can push out and cause severe pain. A surgery appointment was set, and Graham was able to look forward to getting back to training a month or two after the procedure was completed.

But it didn’t happen. A last-minute diagnosis revealed that the defender was suffering from discitus, a rare spinal infection. That’s when Graham realised that the road to recovery would be long and arduous indeed.

“I didn’t get the surgery in the end,” he said. “I was all prepped for the surgery in March and they came in at the last minute and said, ‘It’s not happening, you’ve got an infection in your spine.’

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“I was put into hospital for a few weeks on a drip. The last 10 months have been tough, that’s for sure. I’m still on the way back from that in the sense that my body was out for nine months not doing anything. I literally wasn’t allowed to do anything. Normally when you get an injury – even a cruciate – you’re allowed to start doing a few things after a few months.

“It’s been a long haul for me but I’m hoping that come the league season, I’ll be ready to go. That’s been the aim for me rather than trying too much too soon. As much as I wanted to play in the friendlies and play on Wednesday [against Airdrie] it’s probably too soon for me. I just need to remember how long I’ve been out and try and build up again.”

At 37, it would be natural for any player suffering such a serious setback to consider chucking it all in and call time on their career. But then again, as Alloa supporters know all too well, Andy Graham is no ordinary footballer.

His career has been characterised by a dogged determination; a never-say-die attitude that has made him a valuable asset of any side he has been a member of. And while his diagnosis led to some soul-searching about what the future might hold for him, he still has that heartfelt desire to continue playing and no plans to hang up his boots. But, he concedes, he is not out of the woods yet.

When asked if he thought his brush with retirement might have been the end of his playing career, the answer was emphatic: “Absolutely. I’d be lying if I said I still didn’t think that because I’ve still not played a game of football. There’s no guarantee of anything. What I will say is that I’ll give it everything to get back out there and play again.

“It’s such a rare thing to happen – it’s not even an injury, it’s an infection in my spine. It’s one in 150,000 folk that get it and it’s very, very rare. They didn’t catch it for three months because it’s so rare.

“It’s just bad luck. It’s not as if I’ve done my knee and you’re thinking, ‘Will his knee be okay?’ I’m hoping that when I get my fitness back and get my movement back I’ll be okay.

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“I’ve been very lucky in my career; I’ve never had any long-term injuries apart from this. Even if I’m not playing, it’s important to be as big a part of it as I can with the players.”

Given the serious nature of Graham’s plight, it would be perfectly understandable if Alloa boss Peter Grant eased the centre-half back into the first-team fold. But Graham believes that when the time comes to return to action, he won’t simply be playing the odd half here and there.

The nature of his position, he explains, means that if he can get through a training session unscathed then he can expect to play the full 90 minutes when he returns to competitive action. That day is likely still a few weeks away and while Graham was effusive in his prise for the medical team at Alloa, he stresses there are others that have volunteered their time to get him up and running once again.

“I don’t think [I’ll be phased back into the team],” he said. “I think it depends on your position. If you’re a midfielder, generally you do get phased in but when you play centre-half – if I can get through training then I’ll be able to get through games. I think that’s the approach that I’ll be taking.

“The thing to keep an eye on will be the effect it has on me afterwards. It’s not gone away completely yet, I’m still going down to Leeds to see a specialist so hopefully that will get me over that last wee bit and get me playing.

“It’s been a long 10 months. I’ve been very, very lucky in that sense – I’ve got the physio at Alloa but I’ve also had Gerry Docherty, who’s the physio at Dundee, who has taken time out to really help me.

“You appreciate things like that when folk go out their way to make sure I’m okay. That’s a goal for me: to get back out there for the folk that have helped me along the way.”

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Graham hopes that he still has a few more years to go until he has to start thinking of life after playing but a career in coaching feels like the most likely next step. The defender has his coaching badges and there has always been an intelligence about the way he plays the game, and a stint on the touchline in future seems inevitable – perhaps, even, at Alloa.

Graham said: “If you’re lucky enough to get any coaching or management job in football in Scotland then you’ve got to seize it with both hands.

“Alloa have been fantastic to me and the manager has been excellent with me, considering the injuries I’ve had for him. I’d done well with the previous managers but not so much with the gaffer and that’s a frustration for me but he’s been excellent all the way through.

“If an opportunity did come up to coach at Alloa then I’d obviously take it but I’m still hoping that’s a wee while away because it’s my goal to keep playing as long as possible. I’ve not really thought about the coaching side of it and won’t until I’m told: ‘Right, that’s you, you really can’t play anymore.’ I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.”

Until that day arrives, Graham has got plenty to keep him busy in the meantime. Life as a footballer can be physically exhausting and his other job, as a key worker tasked with helping teenagers leaving school figure out the next step in their lives, can be emotionally draining at times.

“It can be challenging but you get both sides of it. Some days you want to hit your head against a wall but other days it’s brilliant when young people have went on to achieve things,” he says.

That added income also provides Graham with peace of mind as Scottish football grapples with the financial realities of the Covid-19 pandemic. Alloa, he stresses, are in a relatively healthy position off the park and have budgeted for a season without any fans coming through the turnstiles at the Indodrill.

However, he accepts that there are other footballers that aren’t quite as lucky: particularly in the Premiership, where full-time players don’t have a secondary income to fall back on should the worst happen and their contracts are ripped up.

“You try not to think about it because at the end of the day it’s something you can’t control,” he said. “It’s completely outwith your ability to do anything about it.

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“Don’t get me wrong, Alloa are run the right way and the chairman and the board have never lived beyond their means. You always hear about certain clubs paying this or that and players go there for the money but Alloa have never done that. It’s always stayed the same; if you get promoted there aren’t massive wage rises, nothing like that. It’s times like these that will really come to fruition.

“The chairman has already told us that if we get no fans for the season then Alloa will survive, so it’s good to know that in the back of your mind. You read about other clubs every day in the papers, clubs saying they can’t go on with no fans and I do think there will be other clubs out there that will struggle. Alloa can’t go on forever [without fans] but the chairman has already told us that they’ve planned enough that we’ll be able to see out the season.

“I think there are a lot of players out there that will be concerned for their livelihood, especially guys at full-time teams as well. At part-time level most of the boys – not all of them – but most of the boys will have other jobs so they’ll still have that income coming in. Whereas the full-time guys that are at Premiership clubs will probably have that fear of losing their jobs over this. Then it can become a scramble to get jobs in a climate where they aren’t there.”

That isn’t a possibility that Graham has to concern himself with too much for the time being but there are other effects of the coronavirus pandemic that make life challenging – and, at times, smelly – for lower league footballers.

“You’re missing that sense of camaraderie and team spirit that you had before because at part-time level, you usually turn up for training about 6 o’clock and spend 45 minutes in the dressing room before you go out,” he explained.

“And at the end of training, you’d normally get a bit of food in the dressing room after and stuff like that so you miss that side of it for sure. I think boys are finding it quite difficult not having that time. It’s not the same walking out, training with boys and then walking away. Listen, it’s the way it’s got to be but part-time teams will be finding that harder. When you’re full-time at least you see each other every day.

“The social aspect of training has changed, and the whole bit about not getting a shower isn’t great. Boys are travelling through from Edinburgh and Glasgow through to Alloa, training and then not getting a shower isn’t ideal! You’re jumping back in the car, you’re minging – that’s not great to be honest.

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“Looking at it from a sport scientist or a nutrition point of view, we would always have food after training. Joyce, the lady that does the food, she’s absolutely brilliant. It’s folk like that you feel for, it’s her livelihood that’s getting affected too. It’s wee things like that.

“Training itself isn’t that much different, the only thing we aren’t allowed to do is 11 v 11. We’re not allowed to do that without testing, I don’t know what the reason behind that is to be honest. You can play sevens, eights – you can play tens if you want but you’re just not allowed to play 11 v 11 on a full-size pitch.

“From the boys’ point of view, that means there’s not been that much shape training which we’re all delighted about. It’s not a player’s favourite thing to do so we’re not really that bothered about that. It’s more the social aspect just now and replenishing yourself after training. The boys at Alloa are good; if there’s a protein shake or stuff like that they can look after themselves that way but it’s certainly been different, that’s for sure.”

With the opening round of fixtures of the Betfred Cup on the horizon, all 30 clubs outside the Premiership are gearing up for their first taste of competitive football since March. The preparation hasn’t been ideal, Graham says, but he believes the extenuating circumstances that have affected each side could act as something of a leveller when the action gets under way.

“Honestly, no,” was the reply when Graham was asked if he felt his side were fully prepared for competitive games. “I don’t think any club in Scotland would say they’re fully prepared when you’ve not had boys in full training for six months and then going into a season with only six weeks of pre-season.

“I don’t think any club can say they are ready but at the same time, the boys are desperate to get back playing. We’ve only had a couple of friendlies so far and we’ll be going into the Airdrie game on Wednesday off the back of two games in the last seven months.

“At the same time, we played the friendlies and the boys were bursting to get back out there again. That’s all it is; you can do as much running and training as you want individually, but in terms of spaces on the park and moving as a team, that takes time to gel again.

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“It can be a leveller. Every team is in the same boat, nobody has been allowed to train fully. Everyone has had the same level of preparation so I think what you’ll find is that there will be a few more injuries and the squad sizes will be a lot smaller than what we’re used to having because of the financial impact on clubs.

“At Alloa, we’ve been quite lucky that we’ve had a few young lads coming through and maybe it’s an opportunity for them because they’ve come up and done really well. Maybe clubs will be looking to promote more youth players to try and supplement the squad and that can only be a good thing.”

There have been questions raised, too, about just how safe the Betfred Cup will be. When a Premiership side is involved, both sets of players are required to be tested but when a game doesn’t involve a top-flight team, no testing will take place apart from temperature checks before kick-off.

However, Graham says he has good reason to believe that such fixtures will be safe for all involved, thanks to the reality of a football match.

“I don’t really have that concern to be honest [that players could transmit the virus to each other on the pitch],” he said. “With the medical know-how that I’ve seen, there’s a 15-minute transmission time and you think to yourself that on a football pitch, there’s no way you spend anywhere near that amount of time right next to someone.

“Yes, you might be close to people and grabbing them or whatever, but you’re never that close to them for that amount of time. It’s not something that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and I don’t think any of the boys have been thinking about it either.

“There’s not been any cases of players transmitting it on the pitch in any of the leagues that have restarted as far as I’m aware. It’s not something to worry about. When you think I’m part-time and going in to work in schools every day, going to play football is the least of my worries!”

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On the pitch, though, Graham has one clear objective: to help Alloa regain their place as the best part-time team in Scotland, a title that Arbroath currently hold after Dick Campbell steered the Angus club to a fifth-placed finish in last season’s Championship.

He explained: “When you look at what’s happening in the world of football – Arbroath finished fifth last year – there’s no reason Alloa can’t do that too. We’ve got the infrastructure and the players to be able to do that. There’s no reason we can’t aim to be in that part of the league.

“Obviously, surviving has been done for the last few years but the question now is: can we go and kick on, and improve on what we’ve achieved? That’s our aim; to always improve, to try and do better and that’s what we’ve done over the last few years.”

That indefatigability isn’t unique to Alloa; it’s a hallmark of Graham that those who know him can attest to. It took the best part of two decades for the defender to face serious adversity in his career and when it finally arrived, it didn’t just rain but it poured. His game has always been typified by that steely sense of determination, that will to push on and never accept defeat. He has made a career of defying the odds and playing a part in unlikely success stories and so long as he has anything to do with it, it won’t be coming to an end anytime soon.