Dundee United boss Jackie McNamara admits he has a difficult decision to make about whether to bring Ryan Gauld straight back into his squad for the Tayside derby with St Johnstone at Tannadice.
The 18-year-old has been struggling with a lower back problem and last played on February 15 in the 3-2 victory over Kilmarnock at Tannadice.
However, he has responded well to treatment and returned to training on Monday, but McNamara is wary of bringing him back too soon.
The manager did confirm that the Tangerines will definitely be without on-loan Newcastle defender Curtis Good.
The Australian picked up a hip injury while on international duty last week, with the worst-case scenario being that he will miss up to six weeks.
McNamara, though, is hoping the player will be able to make his comeback before that.
He said: “Everyone came through the cup game at Inverness OK and young Ryan Gauld trained with us on Monday.
“We will see how he reacts before deciding whether to stick him back in but we are just delighted to have the wee man training again.
“Unfortunately, it looks like Curtis will be out for four weeks, which is what we thought, so we will stick to that timescale just now.”
The last time United played St Johnstone it was a day to forget for the Tangerines. Calum Butcher was sent off early on and United ended up on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline.
Now McNamara has demanded that his players maintain high concentration levels as they look to keep their six-game unbeaten run going.
He said: “It is going well at the moment, but we are just taking it game to game and we have another massive one against St Johnstone.
“They will want to try to close the gap on us while we want to close the gap on the teams above us so it should be an entertaining match.
“The last time we played them, we were down to 10 men after 20 minutes, so it is important that we keep our concentration.
“I think that was the biggest thing after that last game. It is all about concentrating, as it is most weeks. If we do that, we will have a good chance of winning.
“We are getting down to the nitty gritty stage of the season with the cup semi-final and the last few games before the split, so it is important that we keep that winning run going.”
Meanwhile, Gavin Gunning has been linked with a possible move to Italy with Palermo believed to be showing an interest in the defender.
The 23-year-old is out of contract in the summer with other clubs, including Rangers and Ipswich, thought to be interested in signing him.