St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright’s squad could be stretched for the visit to table-topping Aberdeen tomorrow with up to five first-team players set to miss out.
Goalie Alan Mannus will definitely not be taking part as he is suspended following his sending off against Dundee United last week.
However, four others are injury doubts with Wright admitting the situation was worrying.
The manager said: “The injuries are a bit concerning at the moment.
“Tam Scobbie is a doubt with a shoulder/neck injury. He took a hefty challenge on Saturday.
“Chris Millar is a doubt with a hamstring, as is Michael O’Halloran while Chris Kane took a knock in the development game on Tuesday.
“There are four that will potentially be missing. But that will give the squad the chance to show their strength in depth.”
With Zander Clark set to take Mannus’s place between the sticks, Wright has moved to cut short Mark Hurst’s loan spell at Jim Weir’s Elgin City to act as back-up tomorrow.
He said: “Mark has come back from Elgin. He will be on the bench.
“He can go back to Elgin and can be recalled if agreed by all three parties. He is a development player so is fine for the bench.
“We only had young Ben McKenzie who is 18 and has absolutely no experience. It would be unfair at his age to expose him to the possibility of coming on.
“It had to be agreed by Elgin and I thank Jim for doing that. Jim knows the two clubs have built up a good relationship recently with the number of players we have let go on loan.”
Wright has been linked this week with taking over the managerial hot-seat vacated by Jackie McNamara at Dundee United.
However, he insists he has ignored the speculation and has just been fully focused on preparing for the game against Derek McInnes’s title challengers Aberdeen.
The manager added: “There has been the odd quip from the players. But all I’m doing is concentrating on the job. The only thoughts I have is to get three points at Aberdeen.
“It’s business as usual here. We have worked extremely hard this week in preparation for a tough game.
“That is my focus. My only focus is to do well for St Johnstone.
“Aberdeen have an excellent squad and Derek has built on the success by recruiting well and getting more depth to the squad. He has added quality too.
“Overall, and he will probably admit it, Celtic’s squad has got more quality in depth.
“But if Aberdeen can be fortunate with injuries and suspensions and Derek can get his best team out, they will certainly push them closer than last year.
“There is no reason why they couldn’t push them all the way.
“If they are in a good position in January, Aberdeen are the sort of club who could be able to strengthen again.
“Celtic are still favourites but Aberdeen will run them close.
“There have been quite a few good tussles between us and Aberdeen over the last few years. They, like ourselves, will be expecting a tough game.
“We need to take the positives from the last two games. There have been a lot of positives so far this season.
“We have been scoring goals both home and away. But we are still waiting for that first clean sheet so it would be nice to get that.”