Andrew Davies had been eyeing a Dundee debut in tomorrow’s crucial bottom-of-the-table clash with St Mirren.
Instead, he will be watching from the stand after another break in his foot ended his season.
Manager Jim McIntyre admitted that the training ground injury is a “severe blow” to the club’s hopes of staying in the Premiership – but one his players can overcome.
“He’ll be operated on today and his season is over,” said the Dens Park boss.
“It’s a severe blow because I knew what he would bring to the team.
“He’s worked so hard on his rehab and he’s looked in as good condition as I’ve ever seen him.
“He really was flying.
“As disappointed as we are for the team and the club, I’m more disappointed for him because he’s the guy who has got to go through the same rehab again.
“But he is a positive guy. He was down yesterday but within two hours he was back on the phone saying ‘let’s go again’.
“We had the target of getting him back for this game.
“It will be up to the others to stand up for the battle ahead because that’s what we’ve got.
“Managers all have their hard luck stories and I’ve still good a group of players who I firmly believe are good enough to get us out of this situation.
“He would have enhanced that group for sure but it’s not to be. We get on with it. He’ll be back in the dressing room supporting the boys on Saturday, no doubt.”
The 34-year-old former Ross County centre-back originally broke the metatarsal in a closed-doors friendly during the January break, just days after signing.
“We couldn’t have done anything differently,” McIntyre added. “It’s just a freak thing that has happened again.
“He had done a lot of strengthening and conditioning stuff with the physio and then he had done nearly a full week with us – going through exactly the same drills as the rest of the players.
“He turned to push away and he felt another pop. There is no rhyme or reason to these type of injuries. It’s very uncommon to re-do it. Nobody was near him again.”
As would be expected, McIntyre was at McDiarmid Park to watch St Mirren lose narrowly to St Johnstone on Wednesday night.
“They obviously had a really good opportunity to take the lead with a penalty,” he said. “It was a massive moment.
“I thought there wasn’t much between the teams.
“They’ve definitely improved and you can see they’re playing with more confidence.”
Simeon Jackson’s chipped penalty that went horribly wrong was the post-match talking point and McIntyre, who famously scored one down the middle for Dunfermline in a Scottish Cup semi-final replay against Hibs in 2007, wouldn’t be angry if one of his own players tried something similar on Saturday.
“I’ve actually scored five of them!” he joked.
“I would be happy for one of my players to do it.
“I think you have to let the player take it as he sees fit. You have to trust him.
“In my own situation, I’d done my homework on their goalie and he always dived early. That’s what made my mind up. I practiced it.
“You can only produce it every now and again because people get wise to it. And if you don’t score you look like a fool.”
