Dundee will be without Jordon Forster for up to six weeks after it was confirmed the central defender has fractured a bone in his foot.
Forster came off at half-time as the Dark Blues suffered a 6-2 defeat at Tynecastle last Friday and it was subsequently revealed that he had suffered a serious injury.
The 27-year-old former Hibs man won’t require an operation but instead will give the break time to heal.
Dens manager James McPake said: “He has a small fracture in his foot.
“He will be out for about six weeks with that, we believe.
“He had a scan on Monday and then saw the specialist on Tuesday.
“There will be no surgery required so that’s a bonus.
“It is a case of resting the foot so we will manage that and get him back hopefully in four but probably in six weeks.”
Forster’s absence will mean an enforced change in defensive personnel for the Dark Blues when the host Greenock Morton at Dens on Saturday.
However, McPake hinted that he might stick with three at the back despite the Dundee rearguard coming under extreme pressure from Hearts.
He insisted: “The three has served us well.
“That was certainly the case at the end of last season, although it was different personnel and I get that.
“It wasn’t right (at Tynecastle) – the performance wasn’t right – as we saw, and I think at times we can look at the shape.
“You have to do that, of course you do. Hearts exploited that.
“I do think, though, it’s something that has worked really well for us.
“At Friday’s game it didn’t work because as a group we didn’t get it right that night. It wasn’t just down to the shape of the team.
“Of course, you look at it all – the personnel, the shape of the team and what we did wrong – and you take the bits out of that then move on to the next game.
“You see how you can do better.”
The Dundee players have not been feeling sorry for themselves in training this week, something that has pleased McPake.
“On Saturday at training they were a bit down as you can imagine – it was only 12 hours after the game,” he said.
“On Monday, though, we got back on the grass and got them going again.
“Players do quickly get ready for, and look ahead to, the next match.
“It is tough losing a game like that but we have been in that position before and bounced back.
“You need to put it to bed and look ahead to the next one.
“This is amplified because the scoreline was what it was and the game was on TV but there are some big characters in that team.
“Overall, the boys have been really good in training this week and I have been pleased with them.”
The Dens boss admitted that, in the wake of the 6-2 loss, they “owe” their supporters a good outcome against Morton.
He wants a win and then they can look to string some good results together.
“We owe people a performance on Saturday,” he said.
“We are going to have off days but the big thing for me is consistency.
“We need to perform consistently well over long spells. It was a lack of consistency that killed us last season.
“We went on winning runs three or four times but didn’t keep it going. That was criminal so it needs to be right this time.”
Meanwhile, Osman Sow appears to be over his hamstring problem and trained yesterday, while Alex Jakubiak is close to recovering from his ankle injury.
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