Rangers winger Jamie Murphy admits he doesn’t know if he’ll ever play on a plastic pitch again.
The Ibrox star suffered a serious knee injury on Kilmarnock’s artificial surface last August which then kept him out for the season.
He’s only just returned to full training with manager Steven Gerrard’s side this summer after months of rehab.
Murphy refused to slate astroturf pitches, which are used by Killie, Livingston and also Hamilton in the Scottish Premiership.
But he revealed that club medics will decide whether he’s allowed to play on them.
Murphy says he’d have been fit for Rangers' last game of the season at Rugby Park, but was ruled out because of the surface.
And he’s a serious doubt to start the first match of the new campaign, which is also away to the Ayrshire club.
Murphy said: “It’s not for me to decide whether I’m going to play on artificial pitches or not.
“The medical staff at the club will discuss it with the manager. I have’t been told I can’t play on them or that I can.
“I’ll take it as it comes. I’d possibly have been fit for the last game of the season if it hadn’t been at Rugby Park.
“But when the post-split fixtures came out there was no reason for me to push my rehab for it.
“My first game back definitely wasn’t going to be on astroturf. So it maybe gave me a chance to slow down a bit and do things properly.
“It’s Rugby Park on the opening day of the new Premiership season but we’ve got European games first.
“I don’t want to say anything on artificial pitches. I got injured there but I don’t know the reason for it.
“Mentally, I’d be OK going back there. I’ve done some running on the astro we’ve got at the training ground.
“And it’s a game of football, sometimes you forget that. It might be different to play on but you just want to play.”
