Dundee boss Jim McIntyre has revealed that Genseric Kusunga volunteered to play on Saturday against Queen of the South in the Scottish Cup despite having missed training nearly all week because of illness.
With Darren O’Dea suspended and new signing Andrew Davies out with a fractured foot, the Dens manager only had two centre-halves available in the Angolan international and on-loan Crystal Palace player Ryan Inniss.
McIntyre would have been forced to draft in a youngster if Kusunga had called off but he put his hand up to start and lasted the full 90 minutes.
However, the manager insisted the situation highlighted once again the need for Dundee to add more players to the squad during this window.
McIntyre said: “We are desperate to get players in. Everybody can see that we are short.
“We had Gensy and big Ryan Inniss who hasn’t played for a while.
“Gensy had been ill for most of the week and hadn’t trained since Monday.
“So you have to give him credit. He wasn’t at his best but he knew we were struggling in that area of the pitch.
“Gensy put his hand up saying, ‘Gaffer, I want to play’.
“That’s exactly what we needed as we were down to the bare bones.
“We only had a couple of young kids on the bench in that position.”
