St Johnstone forward Drey Wright has been ruled out for several weeks.
The results of a scan on the former Hibs winger’s calf have dealt manager Steven MacLean another injury blow.
Wright is one of 10 first team squad members currently on the sidelines.
And the scale of the issue has forced the Perth boss to abandon plans to play Burnley in a friendly later this week.
“Drey’s scan has shown a problem with the tendon at the bottom of his calf so he’ll be out for a few weeks,” MacLean reported.
“It’s a bit more complicated than just a calf injury.
“He actually feels OK but it’s not in a great position so we have to be careful with it.
“It was an innocuous one. We have watched the footage of him doing it back and he just turned when it happened.
“Obviously losing him for a few weeks is another blow – he was our player of the year last season.
“But hopefully he’ll get back sooner rather than later.”
Light at the end of the tunnel
Saints have no competitive fixture this weekend as a result of their early League Cup exit.
“Having the break might help us get a few of the other ones back training again,” said MacLean.
“James Brown and Chris Kane are getting closer. Nicky Clark and Cammy MacPherson are starting to run this week too.
“Hopefully they won’t show any reaction to that.
“Nicky has been out for a long time now so he’ll need a lot of fitness work into him to get him up to speed.
“Cammy did a bit of pre-season so he will be a bit further forward.
“Kano and Browny will hopefully be the first two back and then we can crack on with the others.
“Tony Gallacher had a sore neck last weekend so hopefully he’ll be better this week and back training.
“Hopefully it starts to clear up in the next few weeks because we’ve been plugging gaps constantly all season so far.”
Too big a risk
Explaining his decision to call-off the trip to Burnley, MacLean said: “I was going to take a game against Burnley but we’re not going anymore because of the injury list.
“We have too many players out to risk it.
“It made sense a couple of weeks ago when it was first arranged but given what’s happened since, we’ve decided we just can’t do it.
“It’s unfortunate because we wanted to get a game and a few weeks ago it looked like it would have been a good one for us.
“We’re just going to work everyone hard here instead.”
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