By Graeme Dey

DUNDEE UNITED won’t be rushing Garry Kenneth back into action—because they’ll need him in full working order to face Rangers on December 15.

There had been an outside chance Kenneth’s sooner than expected recovery from groin trouble would have seen him make the bench against Celtic.

But a slight setback last Friday scuppered that notion and now boss Craig Levein has instructed physio Jeff Clarke to focus on ensuring the player is entirely over the problem in time for the visit of Rangers, even if that means him missing out this coming weekend—because he’ll be needed then owing to Andy Webster being prevented from facing his employers by the terms of his loan.

“With Andy unavailable against Rangers and Lee Wilkie also ruled out we’ve got to make sure Garry is fit for that match,” said Levein.

“He’s improving but gave the injury a wee tug on the Friday so we left him out against Celtic.

“He might be available for this weekend or he might not. The main thing for us is that he’s 100% for this Rangers game.

“I’ve told Jeff that’s what we should be looking at. If he’s back before then fair enough but we won’t be pushing him.”

The United players were put through a gruelling running session on St Andrews beach yesterday after heavy rain rendered their training pitches unusable. A planned bounce game with Airdrie was ko’d for the same reason, depriving Jon Daly, Keith Watson and Kevin Smith of much-needed match practice.

And that has left Levein minded to send Watson and Smith out on loan.

“Like Jon, Kevin and Keith need game time so I may well loan them out now,” he confirmed.

“I probably won’t have any more bounce games until after the Rangers fixture is out of the way.

“And that’s too long for them to wait, so we’ll think about getting them clubs for a month or so.

“Even if they go somewhere and come off the bench for 30 minutes that’s better than I’ll be able to give them at the moment.”

United already have Johnny Russell and Greg Cameron on loan at Raith Rovers. But it looks as if neither will feature in the Fifers’ Scottish Cup tie against Peterhead this weekend.

“I probably won’t let Greg Cameron play for Raith in the Scottish Cup,” revealed Levein.

“With Scott Robertson still out we might need him at some point.

“And Johnny Russell has a wee injury so he won’t be playing in the cup either.”