Partick Thistle and Dundee United hero on fire service training as he admits burning desire to balance new job with football return

Trainee firefighter Chris Erskine admits he has a burning desire to return to East Kilbride FC next season.

The 35-year-old from left his hometown club at Christmas to focus on his training for a future career, but he believes his football days are far from extinguished.

He yearns for a return to the field and is hoping he can reach an agreement with his new bosses at East Kilbride Fire Station which will allow him to juggle his job with football next season.

Experienced midfielder Erskine, who will be inducted into the Partick Thistle Hall of Fame at the end of the month, is due to begin his new career in earnest in May but he is keen to find a way to pull his boots back on next season.

The ex-Dundee United and Livingston star said: “The fire service training has been great. I’ve done 10 weeks now and I’ve got two weeks to go.

“I’m actually going to be working in the station in East Kilbride so that’s perfect for me and my family, being 10 minutes from the house.

“I’ve been really enjoying it.

“But in terms of my football, I still need to see how that can work with the job.

“I’ve not really been told yet and people have told me you can’t just take days off because of the shifts, you need to get people to cover you.

“Someone would need to cover me and I would need to cover them, and that would need to be every Saturday so I just need to play it by ear.

“I would like to go back to football. I’m missing a wee bit now.

“That’s been a few months since I kicked a ball and when I went to watch my brother (Liam) the other week at St Roch’s, I had a wee buzz for a game.

“I was desperate to get the boots on so I would like to go back to it, but it’s just whether it can be accommodated in my new job.

“I would be happy to go back