Dundee United boss Jackie McNamara is keeping his fingers crossed that star striker Nadir Ciftci has not seriously damaged his hamstring as first feared.
The 21-year-old Turk, who has scored seven goals since joining the Tangerines in the summer and has become a key com-ponent of their free-flowing attacking system, had to be substituted in the second half of Friday night’s 5-2 victory overKilmarnock.
The initial worry was that he would be sidelined until the new year but McNamara has been making more optimistic noises.
He said: “Hopefully, it is not as bad as we first thought. We will assess him again but the signs are that he might not be missing for too long.
“Hopefully, it isn’t a tear and maybe just a little pull.”
Of course, Ciftci is still facing the possibility of an enforced absence regardless of whether he recovers sooner than expected from injury, with his twice-postponed disciplinary hearing at Hampden set to finally take place at 5pm today.
McNamara and club director Derek Robertson drove through to the national stadium last Thursday without the player as the manager was determined that he did not have to travel to Glasgow and back just 24 hours before an important cup game against Killie.
However, the disciplinary panel were keen for Ciftci, who is accused of “seizing hold of” assistant referee Gavin Harris’ throat in the Scottish League Cup quarter-final defeat to Inverness on October 29, to attend the hearing.
McNamara said: “Nadir will be going through with me. Hopefully, we will finally have a conclusion one way or another.”
United face Hearts at Tannadice this weekend and the manager was an interested spectator on Sunday at Tynecastle, watching the Jambos being taken apart by a rampant Celtic side 7-0.
With the Tangerines in scintillating form themselves, home fans could be forgiven for thinking they will be enjoying a goal-fest of their own at the administration-hit Edinburgh club’s expense this weekend.
However, McNamara has issued a note of caution.
He said: “Everybody will expect us to go and beat them easily on Saturday after that result but Celtic can do that to anybody on their day.
“My experience tells me Hearts will probably sit in a wee bit against us and try to cause us problems. They have had some good results this season even though they have been up against it with everything that’s been going on.
“They get great backing from their fans and they have a couple of experienced lads in their team like Ryan Stevenson and Jamie Hamill.
“So we will need to be patient similar to the Kilmarnock game in the first half. We need to make sure we do things properly and not become complacent.”