Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes hopes he can ease his striking crisis before his side return to action from their Covid-19 isolation at St Johnstone tonight.
Sam Cosgrove, Curtis Main, Ryan Edmondson and Bruce Anderson will all miss the trip to McDiarmid Park leaving the Dons with untried teenager Michael Ruth as their only fit and available striker.
Lewis Ferguson and Niall McGinn are the contenders to lead the line in Perth if the Aberdeen fail to land a forward in time for the game.
McInnes said: “Our only recognised striker we have who can play with his back to goal is young Michael Ruth, who’s only 18.
“We can look at various ways to deal with the situation. Niall has played up there but he’s not played up on his own.
“He’s always played with someone with a bit of a presence and he’s been effective in that role.
“It’s far from ideal and hence why we’re trying to bring someone in. if we can’t bring someone in then we make do with what we’ve got and we try to find other ways to win.
“Sometimes you have to adapt to that.”
The Aberdeen manager has confirmed new signing Ross McCrorie will start in Perth following his move from Rangers and the Dons boss is grateful to chairman Dave Cormack for sanctioning a move for the Scotland under-21 international.
McInnes said: “We speak every other day and he knows that sometimes you have to react to a situation.
“We’ve got three centre-backs unavailable for tomorrow. We’ve got four centre forwards unavailable for tomorrow. Sometimes you need to react.
“We had already taken young Ryan Edmondson in, which was above and beyond what we could have done. And we still have the commitment to Leeds on that.
“With his injury, that just added to what was already a miserable week that week.
“But we are understanding of the fact that, while trying to get in a number nine on a short-term loan is and was the priority last week, if we didn’t move on Ross when we did, we would lose the chance to bring him here.
“My perseverance in mentioning Ross helped matters.”
Tonight’s match will be Aberdeen’s first game since eight players visited a city centre bar on August 1 in a breach of return to football protocol and the Dons boss is eager to get the focus back on football matters against his former club.
He said: “The fact we are two or three games behind now means we have to get our heads down and get on with the job. The schedule is going to be congested and being able to deal with it with the strongest squad possible is important but we have to get through this period without key players.
“We’re still confident we can win games and once we get through the first round of games we can start to look a bit more optimistically.”
