Scottish Premiership ref reveals VAR 'saved' his career as permanent switch was a must for good of his health

Andrew Dallas has revealed how a hip injury forced him to become a full-time VAR.

The Premiership whistler - son of infamous former official and head of referees Hugh - has had to step back from on-field reffing and make the full-time move to Clydesdale House, where video replays are analysed to help refs at stadiums try and make the right decisions.

The 40-year-old, along with colleague Greg Aitken, became the Scottish FA's first full-time VAR officials back in August. It came almost three years after a hip problem first reared its head prior to a game between St Mirren and Rangers in 2020 “My calf went during our warm-up, and when the St Mirren physio couldn’t get me going again David Dickinson did the game,” Dallas told the Scottish Sun. “The next day I went to Ross Hall Hospital and there they tracked it back to a stress fracture in my hip – very similar to what Andy Murray had.

“The choice was laid before me - either I had a hip replacement or nine months rest. I was still relatively young and I didn’t want a hip replacement, so I took the rest option. I came back the following season and refereed a bunch of matches, about a dozen of them in the Premiership.

"But the recovery time after them was affecting my lifestyle and my mental health. I was limping on a Sunday, a Monday and a Tuesday, then I needed injections and painkillers to referee at the weekend.

“In games I was never in discomfort because adrenalin took over. But eventually the surgeon told me the injections and painkillers were masking the pain - it was still there, I just wasn’t feeling it.

"So I’d be waking on a Sunday and Monday grumpy, and it was affecting my working life. So when the VAR thing came along and officials were training for it, my name