Andy Little has vowed to return to competitive football next season despite currently being side lined with a fractured skull. The former Northern Ireland International has accepted an offer to coach at the Rangers Youth Academy but he plans to carry out this role as well as continuing his playing career despite suffering a career threatening injury that saw him leave the training pitch in April with a fractured skull and shattered eye socket.

“I have been given the okay to get back playing in the future,” he revealed. “There are obvious concerns if I get another bang on the same spot but I suppose that is a risk I take. At the same time it is a risk every time you play football or rugby or Gaelic or whatever it might be. I have just been unfortunate. There is a risk if I was to catch a bad one in the exact same area, but I can’t give up based on that. The skull should heal itself and they are not overly concerned about the eye socket, so I’m just going to take it slowly and build it up again gradually. I just want to get back on a pitch. I am not putting any big pressure on myself. I have had ten years of professional football and in those ten years I have had plenty of ups but more than my fair share of downs and it’s quite mentally draining and tough to take over the last couple of years. I think part time is the way forward for me. In Scotland there are a number of good part time clubs in the Scottish league, but which club I am going to sign for I just don’t know yet.”

Andy suffered his injury while training with Scottish second division club Stirling Albion, but the incident has not adversely affected his passion for the game. “It was a freak accident in training,” he explained. “It was a Tuesday night session and the ball bounced up. I stooped slightly to head it and the fella who gave it away was a trialist who was obviously keen to impress, and he came sprinting in to try to make amends for his mistake and his knee caught me on the temple just above my ear. It was quite a serious and bad fracture of my skull and broke the eye socket as well. I don’t remember anything at all of the training session, or even anything before the training session. The whole night is a total blur but that’s probably not a bad thing really.”

Andy was rushed to hospital but since that night has made steady progress and is now out and about again. “The recovery is slow and steady,” he said. “It’s seven weeks since it happened and I was told a time frame of about three months plus so I’m maybe only halfway. There is obviously going to be a bit of caution when I get back to contact again so it’s slow progress. I’m still not back running about but I don’t feel too bad. I’ve been able to get out and play a bit of golf, I’ve been out about the town and walking the dogs plenty.”

Andy is leaving Fermanagh to return to Glasgow this weekend, where he will take up a position as coach of the under 10 kids at Rangers Academy. Andy scored 38 times in 89 appearances for Rangers between 2008 and 2014, and jumped at the chance to return to the club in a part time coaching role. “Everyone is thinking I must have taken the position because I have retired, but it’s nothing like that,” he said. “I was offered that role long before the skull fracture. Since I came back to Glasgow at the start of last season I have been working as a community coach on a part time basis. The head of the academy is the same fella that was there when I was a player and I have always had a good relationship with him, and he kept asking if I would be interested. He said at the end of the season there was going to be an opening for me and it’s a big honour. I was pleased they even thought of me for a place in their academy because it’s a good Academy with a lot of young players coming through.”

Fellow Fermanagh man Kieran McKenna has already established himself as a successful coach with Manchester United’s Under 18 team, and Andy admits Kieran’s path has played its part in inspiring him to start his own coaching career.

“Obviously Kieran was someone I looked at and he has done very, very well and he is someone good to look up to,” admitted Andy. “I wouldn’t say I was always mad to get into coaching but the very odd time I have I have helped out with the Fermanagh Milk Cup in the summer I have always enjoyed it. I love the enthusiasm of youth. Some of the sessions I was taking last season, the kids are so enthusiastic you can’t help be buzzing around yourself. I am taking the youngest age group at Rangers and I most likely will do my coaching badges in the future but it doesn’t happen overnight, it takes years, so I am just going to go and learn on the job from the great coaches that are there. The opportunity to get into such a good academy was too good to turn down.”