Key St Johnstone players will be rested for the visit of Celtic to McDiarmid Park on Tuesday evening, with Perth boss Derek McInnes insisting that Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final is their priority.
A few members of the Saints squad are carrying niggling injuries, which McInnes will not take a chance on exacerbating.
As well as those who will be stood down, the home side will also be without suspended Steven Anderson.
Michael Duberry’s two-game ban as well as another two for Anderson will not kick in until later this month.
An Old Firm title fight to the finish is being played out, but McInnes has no option but to put his club’s interests first.
And he also stressed the team he selects will be one he feels will be capable of pulling off a shock.
McInnes said, “All our focus and energy is on Celtic at the moment because we know you can’t go into these games without that focus.
“But we’re also trying to be sensible in terms of team selection.
“If any players have aches and strains that will be taken into account because our priority will be the semi-final and they won’t play.”
He added, “Yes we want a result against Celtic. Of course we do.
“But what I don’t want to do is have a situation where players are out who would have been playing on Saturday.
“I’ll be expecting a performance and a result from the team I put out.”New father’s determinationGoalkeeper Peter Enckelman will be one of the men left out, as he has been playing with a knee strain.
Dave Mackay missed out at Tannadice with a virus but is available for selection as is proud new dad Liam Craig.
The former Falkirk man celebrated the birth of son Calvin just over a week ago.
He is hoping to stay on a high for a few more days by helping Saints to a Scottish Cup final-and before that take care of Celtic tonight.
Craig said, “I’d been hoping the baby wasn’t going to be born on the day of the cup semi-final, so that was a relief.
“The main thing was that Laura and Calvin were all right.”
He added, “We’re getting into a routine now and I’ll be available for tomorrow night’s game as usual.
“I’m looking forward to playing Celtic.”
Craig pointed out that going through the motions is not an option for him.
He said, “That will be the biggest game of our season and everybody knows that, but you can’t go into any match not looking to get injured.
“If you don’t give 100% you can play your way out of the manager’s plans so I’ll be treating it the same as any other game.”‘Really big week’Craig was in the stand at Tannadice and got a good view of Anderson’s controversial sending off, which shaped the game.
Reflecting on the derby, which provoked a war of words between the two camps, he said, “Ando’s been a major player for us this season and he’ll be missed tomorrow night.
“I watched the video at half-time and you could see right away that it wasn’t a foul.
“Hopefully his suspension will mean he’s fresh for Saturday.”
He added, “The boys were excellent on Saturday with 10 men. I thought we were the better team in the second half and had the better chances.
“We’ll pick ourselves up from the defeat and look forward to the Celtic match now.”
McInnes does not want to add any more fuel to the fire regarding United and Danny Swanson, with more important things on the agenda for Saints in the next few days.
He said, “We move on and it’s the start of a really big week for us.”
Gary Hooper and Charlie Mulgrew are expected to be fit for the Hoops.
Hooper received a dead leg against St Mirren on Saturday and Mulgrew also picked up a knock.
Skipper Scott Brown will come back into contention after being rested at the weekend.
Manager Neil Lennon is hoping defender Daniel Majstorovic will start back training this week, after recovering from a broken toe, with a view to returning before the end of the season.