2008-09 Season Player Quotes: 

Aug 10th 2008

Manager Jim Jefferies told BBC Sport that it was too early to tell whether O'Leary would be fit to face St Mirren in Paisley on Saturday.

Aug 22nd 2008 Ryan O'Leary will miss most of the season after tests revealed he needs surgery on his injured shoulder. The 20-year-old dislocated his shoulder in a collision with former team-mate Colin Nish during Killie's Clydesdale Bank Premier League win over Hibernian on August 9. The Scotland Under-21 player suffered a similar injury once before and a visit to a specialist heralded bad news. "He will be out for six to seven months," Kilmarnock boss Jim Jefferies said."The surgeon reckons he will have to perform open surgery as opposed to the keyhole procedure Ryan had before. "Ryan will do well to return before the end of the season. "He is young enough to come back but this is extremely unfortunate"

Feb 22nd 2009  Ryan O'Leary has missed seven months of the season with an injury he picked up seven YEARS ago.

The young defender dislocated his shoulder on the first day of this campaign after a challenge with Hibs striker Colin Nish and hasn't featured for the first team since.

The 21-year-old suffered the same injury two seasons ago but key-hole surgery failed to cure the problem. O'Leary admits he first knocked his shoulder out as a 14-year-old. And the fit-again star is praying a second op has cleared up his age-old agony for good. O'Leary, who could make his comeback on Saturday against Aberdeen, said: "I had my first operation two years before the latest injury and it put me out for three months.

"I thought it was sorted but it just didn't feel right - I could still feel something. I went up in a challenge with Colin against Hibs in the first game this season and tried to hold him off with my left arm. With minimum pressure the shoulder came out again and that showed how weak it was. So I had to get a more detailed operation second time around. They had to cut right down my shoulder. Thinking back I was always wary if someone came on to my left side during a game. If I was marking I'd try to put them over to my right arm. I thought it was natural to feel little twinges after an operation. You never expect it to come back out. But I've only just found out there's a 98-per-cent chance it can happen again after keyhole surgery. That sounds bizarre. Why not just do it properly in the first place? But hopefully the problem is totally fixed now. To test it out you need to fall or have someone give you a good bang on it. I've had a few of them since I started back training and it has felt solid.

O'Leary has been bothered by the shoulder problem since his days as a YTS kid at Aberdeen. But failing to get it checked out early on has curtailed the former Scotland Under-21 star's career. O'Leary is one of the country's brightest prospects and now wants to show boss Jim Jefferies he's ready to shine after coming through a reserve game last week.

He said: "I first did the shoulder when I was playing football at school. I just landed on it and it came out. Then I was staying in digs at Aberdeen and woke up at 3amto find my shoulder had come out while I was sleeping. But I played on with it and felt I was beginning to show my best form early last season.I broke my nose which hampered me for six weeks then started getting silly injuries.  That seems to have been the story for me so far - doing really well then picking up knocks. Now I just need to work hard to get back in the gaffer's plans."