The injuries sustained by Michael O’Halloran and Denny Johnstone at the weekend are not serious, St Johnstone assistant manager Callum Davidson has revealed.
And the forwards should both be available for Saturday’s clash with Hamilton Accies.
Johnstone had to be brought off early on his first start for Saints at Dens Park but Davidson has confirmed that it was just “a knock on the hip” and “he will be OK”.
O’Halloran rolled his ankle but he too “should be fine”.
Murray Davidson will be back in the Saints squad this weekend but Blair Alston is set to miss out again.
Coach Davidson, though, felt Liam Craig had a good game in the derby at Dens.
He said: “I thought Liam was outstanding. It was one of his best games. He was up and down and winning headers. Murray is an important player for us but we have guys who can come in. We have a squad and that is important.
“Murray will be back pushing for a start on Saturday and competition is healthy.
“Blair will be out for another couple of weeks. I sometimes give players stick for missing training with a dead leg but it is important he looks after it and gets over it. It’s not an easy injury to get rid of so we have to be patient.
“It has been a good start to the season. Losing to your local rivals isn’t great and the manner in which it happened makes it tougher to take.
“But we’d have taken this start to the season. Now we have to kick on again and get more points on the board to put pressure on teams behind us.”
Davidson is confident that Johnstone will prove to be a real asset over the course of the season.
He said: “It was tough shift for him but he has been looking good and he will get better and better. His link play is extremely good. Now it’s about fitting into how we play.”
Davidson has backed Alan Mannus to bounce back from the disappointment of costing his team the opening goal with an uncharacteristic blunder.
“Alan’s mistake changed the game and Dundee could sit in and play on the counter,” he said. “But mistakes from him are very rare. He will be more disappointed than anyone. He prides himself on not making mistakes and I don’t remember many from him in my time here.
“Alan is big enough and strong enough to deal with it.”
Tommy Wright had insisted Saints had been unlucky to have a goal chalked off and a penalty decision go against them. Davidson was very much in agreement with his manager after watching the match highlights on Sunday night.
“It was shoulder to shoulder,” he said of the penalty award against Richard Foster. “If that is a penalty you’re going to have them and free-kicks all the time.
“I am still a bit flabbergasted by the decision because it changed the whole complexion of the game, especially after Ando’s header had just been ruled out.
“He got up really early and that meant O’Dea couldn’t get off the ground. Ando wasn’t pushing the defender and for me his timing was just so good. If that’s ruled out you’d have to be looking at every header.
“Those two decisions changed the game. Instead of being 2-2 it was 3-1.
“We could have done with more composure when we were chasing the game. There were things for us to work on.
“But over the first six games the boys have been fantastic. Their attitude has been great.”