Published: Thursday, 28th May, 2009 11:55am

Wiles heads to Vegas hoping his luck is in

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ATHLETIC"S injured English winger Simon Wiles reckons that when the chips are down, head to Las Vegas.

The 24-year-old jetted off to Sin City to get a break from gruelling rehab but, if his luck continues, he"ll lose his shirt at the casino tables.

Before he left, Wiles laughed, 'With the season I"ve had, I don"t know if I should be gambling as it"s been a nightmare time for me.'

You"d be forgiven for putting everything on red if you saw the Pars man had his chips on black but maybe his fortunes are turning.

After all, he"s been offered a contract by boss Jim McIntyre when other out of contract players have been ushered out the door.

He said, 'I"ve been given a three-month contract to the end of August to prove my fitness and I"m absolutely delighted.

'You fear the worst when your contract is running out and, being injured for the majority of the season, it was a worrying time.

'But he spoke to me about the contract before the last game of the season and just said he wanted to make sure I was back fit.

'I couldn"t ask for much more as the club and management have been brilliant with me since I"ve been out.'

After a promising start, Wiles suffered a crippling injury to his right knee in the 3-1 win over Airdrie in November.

'I think I was only involved in 11 games before it happened,' he recalled.

'It wasn"t a career threatening injury, I knew that pretty much straight away, and was confident I"d make a 100 per cent recovery and be back playing football again.

'Being injured is the worst thing about being a footballer though, especially when it"s long term.

'There"s nothing you can do about it and it"s the time, it just doesn"t pass quick enough.

'For six, seven months I"ve been out and it"s very frustrating but there"s light at the end of the tunnel now.'

However, it won"t be easy and a horrible summer is looming before he even reaches the pain of pre-season training.

Wiles grinned, 'I"ll be working up here all summer getting treatment and training so I"ve already apologised to Gerry (Docherty, the physio), who"s with me.

'I"ve only got the week"s holiday in Las Vegas and then I"ll be back and working hard for another six weeks before pre-season starts.

'Just now I"m doing a lot of squats and leg extensions to build up the thigh and it"s just a matter of time before I"m running.'

Dunfermline will host English Championship side Coventry City in a pre-season friendly at East End Park on Wednesday 29th July.

Coventry finished 17th in the Championship last term and reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup where they were knocked out by Chelsea.

Manager Chris Coleman is expected to unleash striking stars Freddy Eastwood and Clinton Morrison on the Pars defence in the game which is scheduled to kick off at 7.30pm.