Dundee United’s Gary Mackay-Steven is to have his troublesome knee injury scanned today.
The Tannadice winger picked up the problem during United’s 3-0 thrashing of Hibs last weekend but still played in the club’s heavy defeat to Dinamo Moscow on Thursday night.
Mackay-Steven was subsequently withdrawn from the Scotland under-21 squad for Tuesday night’s friendly against Belgium at East End Park.
The player himself is still optimistic of being fit to face Dundee in Sunday’s derby at Tannadice but there will now be an anxious wait for the results of the scan.
Also on the Tangerines’ casualty list are Johnny Russell (groin), Gavin Gunning (back) and Sean Dillon (groin).
Dillon missed the Europa League rout in Russia while Russell and Gunning also have question marks over them.
With manager Peter Houston away on Scotland duty for tonight’s friendly against Australia at Easter Road, it was left to assistant Gary Kirk to assess the injury situation.
He said: ”These four guys are giving us a wee bit of concern. It will be towards the end of the week when we will really know where we are with them.
”They are all obviously big players for the club and we only have a small squad. But I am hoping that, at least, we will get three out of the four of them fit in time for Sunday.
”If we were to get all four of them fit it would be a prize but we will just have to wait and see.”
Meanwhile, Kirk insisted the United players have put their Dinamo despair behind them since arriving back from Moscow.
”They are over it,” he said. “We just have to get on with it now after the disappointment of losing the way we did in Moscow.
”We weren’t happy with the way it happened but they were obviously a decent side.
”Sometimes you have to put things into perspective because they have massive budgets and are spending millions on pounds on players.
”Also, we have always bounced back from disappointments in the past. The players have definitely got that about them.
”I think it maybe helped us to have no game at the weekend because of the travelling back from Moscow as well as the injuries which we are having to contend with right now.”
Kirk joined Houston at Dens Park to see their opponents lose 2-0 to St Mirren and saw enough to convince him that United will be in a battle this weekend.
”We watched Dundee on Saturday and they played quite well,” said Kirk. ”They have a wee bit of spirit about them so we know we will have to be up for it. Dundee created a few chances and, to be fair, the only thing they didn’t do was manage to score.
”We are at home but it will come down to who wants to win it most on the day. It should be a cracker and we just have to look after ourselves and not take anything for granted.
”I don’t think there such a thing as being underdogs going into a derby game. People raise their game so much and seem to give a wee bit extra as it means so much to people.
”If you lose you have to wait another couple of months to get the bragging rights again.”