Dundee United hoping Mario Bilate’s trip to specialist pays off

Dundee United are hoping time spent with a specialist in Holland will finally cure Mario Bilate’s hamstring troubles.

The Russian-born Dutch striker has returned to the Netherlands in a bid to end the injury misery that has restricted him to just seven starts and nine sub appearances since joining last sumer.

Tannadice assistant boss Simon Donnelly, who suffered similar injury misery as a player, said: “Mario has had hamstring problems about three or four times now so he’s away back to Holland to see a specialist,

“We are hoping he comes back and is like a new player for us next season.

“There is a weakness there which we need to get to the bottom of.

“There is no use trying to skim over the top of it as he has had setback after setback.

“So he has had the area stripped back by this specialist in Holland and will hopefully be working hard and be back ready to go for pre-season.

“I hope Mario can be a big player for us next season.

“He is one we had high hopes for when he first came here.

“He scored a fantastic goal for us in the second game of the season against Motherwell and looked the part again Dundee but from then it’s been stop-start with injuries.”