PARTICK THISTLE manager Alan Archibald insists he will carry on treating Sean Welsh with kid gloves as part of the project geared towards returning him to the player he was.

The Jags’ ace has missed most of the last two seasons as a result of a succession of problems and was replaced by David Wilson after just 45 minutes of last night’s 1-1 home draw with Wigan Athletic following a collision with Junior Francisco.

Archibald has revealed that Welsh was ordered straight into an ice bath as a safety measure, but he has no fears about his availability for Saturday’s visit of Rotherham United and is equally sure that the midfielder, hoping to sort out a long-term contract extension next month, will be back to his very best before long.

“Someone stood on Sean and I just took him off as a precaution,” said Archibald, who saw a Steven Lawless strike cancelled out by Ryan Jennings in the second half. “He wanted to play on, but I wasn’t going to take any risks.

“I told him just to get himself in the ice bath. We have to hold him back because he is one of those lads and is desperate to get himself back up to speed, but he has only played something like 10 games in two years.

“I think you saw glimpses against Wigan that show what a player he can be. He is an all-round midfield player who can get the ball off your defenders and make it into the box as a goalscoring threat. He can pass the ball too.

“He just needs a run of games, but there is no need to rush him. You can see what he brings to the side because he drives us forward and really gives us something different in midfield.

“We put the GPS and the heart-rate monitors on him to make sure he is not overloading himself and watch what he is covering groundwise.

"We also have to watch his recovery and keep an eye on him for a couple of days after a match.

“We just ask him to be honest with himself and his body as well.

Everyone is sore in pre-season, but he will be worse because he has been out for a couple of years.”

Archibald included Tomas Cerny, David Amoo and the returning Callum Booth in his starting line-up against Wigan, but opted to leave his most recent signing, Gary Miller, on the substitutes’ bench with Christie Elliott fielded at right-back.

Welsh, despite being given time to find his feet, almost opened the scoring on 14 minutes when smacking a low drive from 25 yards off the base of goalkeeper Lee Nicholls’ left-hand post.

Nicholls then denied Jack Hendry in the closing moments of the opening period before Lawless finally did break the deadlock on 47 minutes with his second goal of pre-season after scoring in a 2-0 win at Eastleigh last week.

Elliott found him with a sliderule pass at the edge of the area and he took a touch before drilling a low shot through the legs of defender Leon Barnett and into the net.

The lead, however, was only to last four minutes. Jennings was allowed to advance into the area after picking up possession and release a low shot that beat Cerny to his left.

Stuart Bannigan forced an excellent save from Nicholls as Thistle pushed to reclaim the lead with Cerny delivering his own acrobatics when pushing a free-kick from Max Power over the crossbar with 20 minutes to play.

“Stevie Lawless has been bright all pre-season and usually comes back in very good condition,” said Archibald. “It suits him when the pitches are in such good condition. We get the ball into his feet and he gives defenders problems.

“He got a good goal that he probably deserved. I was delighted with the workout.”