St Johnstone striker Chris Kane is out for the season.
Manager Callum Davidson has confirmed the club’s top scorer is facing a knee operation to repair damaged cartilage and, like fellow double-winner David Wotherspoon, isn’t expected to kick a ball again this campaign.
Shaun Rooney is another Hampden hero set to go under the knife but the good news for the wing-back is that his lay-off should only last another six weeks.
“It doesn’t look good for Chris,” said Davidson. “I think he will be out for the rest of the season.
“It looks like he’ll need an operation on the cartilage in his knee, which will mean his season is over.
“His knee was swollen after the Kelty game. It went down but then after the Dundee game the swelling came back and we pretty much knew after that it was going to need an operation.
“It’s a big blow because Chris has been our main striker for the last 18 months.
“But we’ve got good replacements in there.”
Bair and Ciftci ready for Aberdeen
Neither Theo Bair not Nadir Ciftci will feature against St Mirren on Wednesday night but both are expected to be in Davidson’s squad for the subsequent match away to Aberdeen.
“Hopefully Theo will be available for Aberdeen and Nadir as well,” said the McDiarmid Park boss.
“Nadir should be back to high-end running by the end of the week.
“Theo’s paperwork (for international clearance) is nearly all done and I think he gets it sorted on Wednesday or Thursday.
“Everybody who comes from that part of the world has that waiting period. It’s just the process and all the other clubs have had the same thing.
“Obviously we didn’t want to go out of the cup but the flipside is we’ll have a bit of time between St Mirren and Aberdeen, which will be good for Theo.”
On Rooney, who hasn’t played since the mid-season break, Davidson reported: “Shaun will need an operation.
“It’s not as bad as we feared – at first I thought he was going to be out for the rest of the season.
“It’s looking like six weeks from now.
“That’s about the same as Craig Bryson, who has had his operation already.”
Michael O’Halloran is “touch and go” for the St Mirren game, with Melker Hallberg suspended.
The former Hibs man has played a big part in Saints’ recent form improvement.
Big progress
“You can see the progress in the team,” Davidson reflected.
“The players believe in each other and believe they’re a good team again.
“The new signings have certainly helped.
🆕📹| Callum Davidson spoke to SaintsTV after our 0-0 draw with Dundee United Football Club#SJFC #SaintsTV pic.twitter.com/U2HVau7Tbg
— St. Johnstone FC (@StJohnstone) February 5, 2022
“Dan (Cleary) at the back has done very well, as have the midfielders and the forward players.
“We’ve been able to make changes off the bench that have helped us in games as well.
“We need to keep that resilience we showed on Saturday (against Dundee United) and that fighting attitude and hopefully get some more wins to build on what we’ve done in the last couple of weeks.
“Refereeing decisions have gone against us again but a few weeks ago we’d probably have lost that game.
“I was missing some big players against United and it says a lot about where we are that we can get a result and play as we did in those circumstances.”
