Raith Rovers have been ravaged by illness ahead of their crunch Championship clash against Inverness.
A swathe of first-team stars were laid low by a nasty sickness bug prior to their victory over Queen of the South last weekend, with key men Reghan Tumilty, Liam Dick and Ethan Ross among the absentees.
While some players returned to training on Tuesday, boss John McGlynn admits that they were far from fully fit.
Others did not feel well enough to attend the session despite previous hopes that they would.
To compound matters, there have been further cases of the illness, which is not related to Covid.
And McGlynn — who emphasised that Raith are not in danger of being unable to field a team despite the issue — readily admits that he has little idea what his starting line-up on Saturday will actually look like.
“Our situation with illnesses is ongoing,” he told Courier Sport. “We are still in a quandary in terms of who is going to be available and who will miss out.
“Although one or two came back on Tuesday, they are not guaranteed to be okay. We need to wait to see if there is any reaction. I’d be telling a pack of lies if I said they were 100 per cent fit.
“On top of that, we’ve actually lost more players.
“Looking towards Saturday, it’s incredibly difficult to pick a team and, certainly, to know what sort of team that might be.
“No-one has Covid, as we speak, but the bug is coughing, spluttering, sweating through the night and, in some cases, vomiting.”
‘Uncertainty’
With the players on a scheduled day off on Wednesday, McGlynn expects more light to be shed on his available options when the group — such as it is — reports for duty on Thursday.
Nevertheless, he is all-too aware how quickly things can change.
“With this illness, they can feel fine and then a few hours later they are really bad again,” he continued. “It’s so difficult to pre-empt, judge and plan.
“Last Friday, we had our team. You know your line-up, you do all your set-plays and prepare. Then on Friday night, we lost Reghan Tumilty and Liam Dick.
“Ethan Ross was gone on Saturday morning.
Rovers picking up their first league win since December 👊#cinchChamp | @RaithRovers pic.twitter.com/gMwssuynLO
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“Those were three starters. So your whole team needs to change.
“We need to be realistic and ready in case the same thing happens this week.
“We do most of our work with regards to the weekend game on a Thursday and Friday, so things could still fall into place and we might be okay. But there’s uncertainty.”
Raith will leapfrog Inverness into the promotion playoff places with a victory, with both sides on a high after ending 11-game winless streaks in the league last weekend.
“That was a massive weight off our shoulders,” added McGlynn. “We didn’t over-celebrate because we know it’s only one win.
“But you could see what it meant to the players, because they’ve been feeling it. Now it’s about building on that.”
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