St Johnstone will find out over the next few days if three of their players Tam Scobbie, Steven MacLean and Scott Brown will be sidelined with long-term injuries.
Scobbie is out for several months after tearing, or possibly even rupturing, his medial knee ligament in training last week. MacLean is to undergo an operation on his knee.
The hope is it will just be a case of removing a bit of floating bone, which would mean a lay-off of just a few weeks. But it’s possible the injury could be worse and keep him out for even longer.
And midfielder Brown left McDiarmid Park on Saturday with his foot in a protective boot after he went over his ankle during the derby defeat to Dundee, and will need to be assessed by a specialist to determine whether he too has damaged a ligament.
Captain Dave Mackay should have known the prospect of a fully fit squad, with the return of Murray Davidson to the bench at the weekend, was too good to be true.
He said: “It’s not the best time for us. We never seem to have boys out for just a couple of weeks. It’s always long-term ones. We were almost getting everybody back.
“Murray was on the bench today, and he was the last one. Now two guys and possibly Scott Brown as well are out.
“We’re hoping it was just a roll of the ankle. It’s too early to say if it will be ligaments.
“It was looking good on the injury front over the last week but unfortunately it isn’t now.”
Manager Tommy Wright is content with his defensive cover, but if the news on MacLean is bad he will look to sign another forward.
He said: “The chairman’s away for a break just now. If Macca is going to be out for months rather than weeks I think it would be important to bring somebody in.”