PARS boss James McPake has said he won't rush Matty Todd back into action and is keeping his fingers crossed that his star midfielder will have better fortune on the fitness front.

The influential 23-year-old has returned to training after fracturing his collarbone during pre-season, an injury which required an operation.

That came after he was restricted to just 21 top team appearances last term after suffering an ankle injury, which also needed surgery, and from a hamstring issue.

McPake was non-committal over whether Todd would be in the squad for Saturday's match at Partick Thistle but, speaking yesterday (Wednesday), he explained: "Matty has trained well since the start of this week but we certainly won’t rush him.

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"It is great having him back. I can’t speak highly enough about Matthew. I spoke to Dave (Mackay) or the physio yesterday. I can talk about it with experience - you come back and it takes you ages and ages to get going, but he comes back and can be one of the best players in training on his first day.

"Training is great when you have good players like him training, and just seeing his desire and willingness to want to train and get better. Touch wood he gets a bit of luck - he certainly deserves it. I am more than happy to have him back.

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"I’m being genuine - in the last couple of weeks the levels (in training) have gone up. That comes with a good performance and off the back of a good win. They feel good about themselves again, they have that self confidence that everybody needs.

"Since the Ayr game, or the lead up to the Ayr game, as a group, they have trained really well and you can’t take away the fact that a few additions have come in as well.

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"It always helps when you get other players in, or one of your good players back."

McPake, who revealed that skipper, Kyle Benedictus, is due to have a scan on an injury issue he has, and that trialists Dapo Mebude and Craig Clay are still training with the club, continued: "I was thinking about this the other day as well, probably because I was watching stuff about Partick, when we went there last year (and won 3-1 in February) we kind of had to play Matty.

"We never had a squad, we were desperate for a win, and Matty wasn’t right. He is probably in better condition now because the injury he had the last time meant he had a lot of work to catch up on.

"He has been working away really from the start with this. He could keep his lung fitness up, for want of a better phrase. He could run about, he could do everything apart from banging into people.

“It is amazing to look back when you are in these positions where you had to play him. It wasn’t just for a result, we just didn’t have that many players to play."