MARVIN ANDREWS brushes aside apparent contradictions in his world view as effortlessly as if they were errant strikers who have made the mistake of wandering into his path as he prepares to contest a high ball. In an upstairs room in the quaint little church at which he has become an ordained minister - the Zion Praise Centre in Kirkcaldy - the giant Trinidadian chooses an item of furniture as a comfortable resting place for his swollen left knee, and carefully places his crutches by the side of the sofa. Just over a week ago, and almost three years since his problems with the joint first flared up at Rangers, God finally referred Andrews to go to hospital to get a knee operation.

The problem this time around - sustained in a Second Division match against Ayr United in February - is cartilage damage, rather than the cruciate ligament problems which dogged him at Ibrox, but it is at least possible that the latter problem arose as a direct result of the former. Andrews, however, has always been the type to rise above such mundane and straightforward explanations.

"For me taking this operation I did exactly the same thing as before," Andrews told the Sunday Herald. "I prayed, and asked God and said God, do you want me to take the operation?', and God told me to take the operation. That is how I ended up on the operating table. If God hadn't told me to take the operation, then I would have done the same. I wouldn't have retired, because God would have healed me the same way he did before. It is as simple as that.

"If I had decided to take the surgery at that time with Rangers, then I wouldn't have won the championship, and Rangers wouldn't have won the championship," added the Raith Rovers player, who was so cruelly deprived of the chance to actually get on the field for Trinidad & Tobago at the 2006 World Cup when the injury eventually crept up on him in Germany.

"Whether you believe it or not, they would never have won the championship. Secondly, my country wouldn't have qualified for the World Cup and I wouldn't have won the player of the year award at Rangers. God directed me, and I made the right decision. I have no regrets whatsoever."

Whether Paul Le Guen's conscience is quite as clear is another matter, having paid up the remaining year of Andrews' Rangers contract only to end up with a Karl Svensson-inspired defence which suddenly appeared susceptible to the high ball. Andrews' move to Raith allowed him to practice while he preached: giving him full-time training at the same time as moving him closer to his church. But whenever he is fit to return to action, the player also believes he will be fit to return to the SPL. He may not be the only one. Prior to his injury, rumours were rife that he would link up with his former boss Craig Levein at Dundee United.

"It is my desire to play back in the SPL, and at the highest level in the Champions League or Uefa Cup," said the 32-year-old, who could easily have been playing in England with Reading or Southampton had it not been for some further divine intervention from his heavenly agent.

"I ask God for directions in everything I do, and I am at Raith Rovers because I was directed to go to Raith Rovers football club. When I left Rangers, I didn't approach anybody. I went and prayed for two months, asking God for directions.

"Only God knows the ending of something," Andrews said. "At the beginning everyone talked about Paul Le Guen and all the great things he was going to do at Rangers, and the great things he had done before in Europe and all these different things. I respected that.

"Personally, as a human being, I admit to being disappointed when I left, knowing I had done so well for Rangers. But in the end I moved on with no regrets whatsoever. Not every coach is going to like you or favour you as other managers do. I wish them all the best. There is no grudge or whatever, but unfortunately he wasn't as successful as other people thought he was going to be."

When it comes to displaying religious slogans on the field of play, of course, Andrews has been there and got the T-shirt. His favourite two slogans are variations on a theme, one reading "With God nothing is impossible" (incidentally, the name of the player's independently produced DVD, which has a ringing endorsement by none other than prime minister and Rovers fan Gordon Brown) and the one he wore at Easter Road, which reads "The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God". Having featured in Old Firm matches in the past, it all makes him well qualified to comment on the Artur Boruc saga. For Andrews, it all comes back to the Polish goalkeeper's intentions.

"There is nothing wrong with what it said - God bless the pope' - but if it is his intention to wear it to bring controversial things to pass then it is wrong, whether he likes it or not," Andrews said. "There is nothing wrong with the words, but if the intention is to do something evil, or to cause friction among Rangers fans, like annoy them or something like that, then it is not good whatsoever. I don't know what his intention was.

"The Rangers-Celtic thing, they try to bring God into it but God has nothing to do with Rangers and Celtic," Andrews added. "Nothing whatsoever. You can never open the Bible and see Rangers or Celtic. Or see the pope or the Queen. It just has nothing to do with God, it is just two religious man-made rules fighting against each other. The Bible says that God says love your enemies. But if you are a Rangers or Celtic supporter and you support your team with everything you have, there is nothing wrong with that."

Andrews is qualified to conduct all manner of ceremonies when the usual pastor, Joe Nwokoye, is away on his travels to the USA or his native Nigeria, but to date has conducted two funerals, but no weddings. It is to be hoped that his divorce from the sport he loves does not last too long.