PERVERSELY, KEVIN James seems to be enjoying this. As he describes in grim detail the measures necessary to ensure he was available for this afternoon's Scottish Cup semi-final, the blood is draining from the scrunched up faces of those listening. But he carries on regardless.
"They gave me an anaesthetic before the jags but when I had a look at him doing it, the guy was virtually bending the needle, trying to get as much in as he could." With a macabre enthusiasm for the subject, he talks about the pressure exerted, of kn
uckles turning white and beads of sweat forming on the brow. He may not have felt anything but in hearing such a gruesome picture being painted, his audience would be excused for feeling sympathy aches in their right knee.
For James all the pain came before then. The header he went for against Livingston last season, which knocked him unconscious and prevented a safe landing, the subsequent medial ligament damage and the mental anguish of unsuccessful operations and rehabilitation.
"I was out cold as I landed – the game was over for me. I put up with it last season, strapping it up, but I needed an op in the summer, which unfortunately didn't clear it up." He actually went under the knife on two occasions but admits that something extra was needed.
"I had to go for some unorthodox treatment which cleared it up. It was a course of prolotherapy – it's a dextrose-based injection the surgeons put straight into the ligaments to strengthen them. It makes the knee tougher. It takes 100ml of fluid and the knee soaks it up. You know your knee's getting stronger when the guy's fingernails are white and there's sweat dripping off him as he's putting it in! He couldn't get any more in," said the 32-year-old.
"I couldn't feel a thing but it wasn't nice to look at, although if I hadn't got that course of therapy I wouldn't be anywhere near involved on Sunday. It feels fine, it's just my age that's the problem now. The rehab takes a bit longer at my age and with my height (he's 6ft 7inches] I had longer to fall."
Indeed, the bigger you are, the harder you fall. James knows that as well as anyone but, in terms of club stature, it's Rangers, not St Johnstone, who are the giants in this afternoon's encounter and he's hoping they will be the team coming down to earth with a thud.
Still bidding for a trophy quadruple, the Ibrox club represent a tough challenge for the First Division side but St Johnstone have a certain pedigree when it comes to giant-killing. Last term they defeated Premier League sides Dundee United, Falkirk and Motherwell as they progressed through the cup competitions and, having ousted Rangers from the League Cup last season, they know there is always a chance.
The McDiarmid Park side actually made it to the last four in both League and Scottish Cups last term, losing out to Hibs in the former and Celtic in the latter, and with many of the same players in the Saints squad this term, James is hoping they have improved enough to see them go one better this time around.
"It's not about learning from defeat in a semi-final, it's about appreciating everything that comes with it. Players should be using that experience to give them the hunger and desire to get back there again.
"It'll be a great occasion on Sunday, especially as we're a First Division club. Nothing is expected of us against Rangers. It was the same last year when we faced Celtic. So the young guys should have no fear – I'll be telling them to just enjoy it. The build-up before the game and during it is something to savour even if you're getting beat!"
The words of wisdom have a familiar ring to them, similar to the ones offered to James himself over a decade ago. Then at Falkirk, he was 21 when they overcame Celtic in a replay to make it into the final of the 1997 Scottish Cup and he remembers Walter Kidd telling him to absorb every moment of the experience, warning him that such occasions were few and far between. "You've always got a chance and there will always be shocks in cup competitions. Anything is possible and we've got to believe that.
"I know what the Queen of the South lads and everyone in Dumfries will have felt after last week because I've been there before with Falkirk. It was the exact same for us in '97 – it gives the whole town a lift and I think everyone gathered in the one pub that night. If we could beat Rangers it would be great for Perth especially because we went so close last year."
And there is more at stake than simply a support role in the season's finale. "When we beat Celtic in the '97 semi it was massive because we knew it was a final we had a real chance of winning. It'll be exactly the same on Sunday if we get past Rangers. But Queens would be delighted to get us in the final!
"We hope to finish above them in the league so if we did make the final, we'd have confidence going into it and the dream may become reality. It would be unbelievable to have an all-First Division final. What would the odds have been on that? It's a credit to our league that it's a possibility. The gap is definitely closing between the SPL and the First Division and that augurs well for maybe extending the league. We've done our division proud and so have Queens this year."
The side they face this afternoon haven't been doing too badly themselves but James knows from experience that even big boys can be dealt a knockout blow.
The full article contains 997 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
