By Graeme Dey

ST JOHNSTONE midfielder Martin Hardie is facing a spell on the sidelines after picking up a knee injury in the course of a 5-1 closed doors win over Falkirk yesterday.

“We suspect that Martin has medial ligament damage and that he’ll be out for a few weeks,” revealed manager Derek McInnes last night.

“And that’s a blow both for Martin and ourselves.”

The full extent of the injury won’t become clear until the swelling goes down in the joint and the club can have it scanned, but Saints are braced for being without the player for an extended period.

Hardie had opened the scoring for the Perth outfit, who fielded two trialists—one of whom also found the net along with Peter MacDonald, Kevin Moon and Paul Sheerin.

MacDonald played the full 90 minutes and now looks firmly on course to be involved in Saturday’s clash with Hearts.

“We had some good individual performances and scored a few goals—which was pleasing— but the injury to Martin has taken the shine off of that,” said McInnes.