Dundee United’s injury woes have worsened considerably as they prepare for their match against St Johnstone tomorrow.
Central defender Garry Kenneth, captain against Hearts on Saturday in the absence of the crocked Jon Daly, left Tynecastle on crutches following the 2-1 defeat.
He will be out for at least three weeks after suffering a medial ligament strain in his knee.
Such is United’s packed fixture programme, that could see the Scotland international miss as many as six matches starting with the trip to McDiarmid Park and encompassing Hamilton (away), Inverness (away), Aberdeen (home), Hamilton again (home) then the Scottish Cup quarter-final against Motherwell at the end of his expected period of absence, on March 13.
Kenneth was replaced by young Dutchman Timothy van der Meulen against the Jam Tarts and the former Ajax player is likely to line up alongside Sean Dillon again in Perth.
However, the absence of Kenneth is the last thing manager Peter Houston needs, given the already lengthy injury list at Tannadice.DefenceIt is the heart of defence that has been hardest hit, with Scott Severin, Darren Dods and Mihael Kovacevic all sidelined, and even Daly an occasional option for the back line currently unavailable.
“Garry is going to be out for three weeks,” said Houston. “That is the initial assumption from the physio and doctor. He has strained his medial ligament in his knee. That gets us back to the bare bones again.
“Timothy came in for Garry, but it was a difficult one for him. He is still an under-21 player and hasn’t played a lot of first-team football, but I am at the stage now where I can’t do anything else.”
Houston called on Van der Meulen to get up to speed with the SPL as quickly as possible after what was a difficult day for him in Edinburgh.
He failed to clear the ball at the first Hearts goal, then Houston argued he could have done better in the air at the second.
“Timothy has to learn what the Scottish game is about,” said the United boss. “In Holland you can get the ball down, dust it about and play passes. Here you sometimes have to put your head and foot through it. That is just the nature of the SPL.
“At the first Hearts goal he has tried to take a touch but has hit it against (Rudi) Skacel following Dusan Pernis’s parry, which was probably a mistake and you can’t say that very often about Dusan.
“The second goal came from a corner kick … and Timothy should have attacked the ball as it went over Scott Robertson’s head, but he never did.Bad luck”I have no worries Timothy will get there once he gets used to who he is playing with, never mind the type of football it is,” he added. “It was not his fault that we lost the game. It was the culmination of bad luck and the concession of two soft goals.”
To make matters worse on the injury front, forward Johnny Russell took a heavy knock and was substituted 10 minutes from time. His fitness will be assessed this morning.
Meanwhile, boss Houston does not believe the verbal abuse David Goodwillie received from some Hearts supporters on Saturday was to blame for his missing an injury-time penalty for the Tangerines.
Goodwillie, who has been charged with serious sexual assault, was constantly booed and taunted in songs and chants. However, Houston felt the treatment he got had no impact on the spot-kick.
“If the question being asked is was that the reason he missed the penalty kick then I don’t think so,” said Houston. “He has missed penalties before, but was brave enough to take it.
“I don’t think it was his greatest-ever penalty, but I always credit the goalkeeper for making a save.
“David is disappointed. Yes, he has taken stick but he has to expect that. I thought his overall game was good. He worked the two centre-backs really well and Marius Zaliukas and Andy Webster did not have an easy time and a lot of that was down to Goodwillie.
“There are bits of his game that could be better but remember that he is still a young player.”