Aberdeen’s injury crisis has deepened with James Wilson and Connor McLennan both set to miss today’s trip to Rangers.
Former Manchester United striker Wilson has been ruled out of the game at Ibrox while McLennan is rated doubtful after the duo suffered injuries in Wednesday’s Betfred Cup defat by Hearts.
Dons boss Derek McInnes said: “We don’t have any good news coming soon – we might have McKenna back next week potentially – but for one or two others it will be after the international break.
“Wilson is out and McLennan is extremely doubtful so that’s another two added to the list.
“It’s not too serious but this game has come too quickly. It looks like he has strained his medial ligament but hopefully it’s just a strain and nothing too significant. We’ll have another look but it won’t settle in time for the game.
“Connor had two dead legs in the same area on his thigh and was struggling after half-time. We’re trying to do our best with boys in there but he will be up against it for tomorrow.
“We’ve got seven or eight out which means we’ll include younger ones. We’ll have a squad of 18 or 19 but we’ll be as you were the other night but without Wilson and possibly McLennan.”
With join Scott McKenna, Ash Taylor, Funso Ojo, Craig Bryson, Stephen Gleeson also on the sidelines McInnes’ options will be restricted further by the growing list of absentees.
But he believes his players are relishing the task of facing a Rangers team he believes will mount a stronger challenge for the Premiership title this season.
He said: “We’ve got to go down confident we can get a positive result as we did last year on a number of occasions.
“I remember going down there after losing the League Cup final (December 2) and winning (1-0 on December 5 McKenna scored and Cosgrove was sent off) in midweek when the odds were against us with 10 men.
“We’ve had adversity to deal with in the past and I think we can go there and still put in a performance to get a positive result against a very good Rangers team.
“We’ve always said if Rangers and Celtic do their recruitment work right and have good managers like they have at the moment it is tough for us to compete for them and I do think the two clubs will fight it out for the league.
“But we can compete with them over 90 minutes and for cups. Celtic are as strong as ever but Rangers are stronger this season. We’re not in October yet and it’s early to make any real assessment but they look as if they’ve recruited well and maybe more suited to sustaining a challenge.”