Caley Thistle striker Miles Storey will miss the start of the Championship campaign after suffering a hamstring injury.
Englishman Storey picked up the injury in Tuesday’s Betfred Cup match against Cowdenbeath, forcing him to be substituted in the 13th minute.
Storey is expected to be sidelined for a number of weeks, with Inverness manager John Robertson challenging his other attacking options to cover for the former Aberdeen and Partick Thistle player, who netted five goals last term.
Robertson is encouraged by the chances his side are creating ahead of tomorrow’s league opener at Dunfermline.
Robertson said: “We’ve lost Miles Storey unfortunately, he tweaked a hamstring so he will be out for a few weeks.
“We’ve got other players there who can fill the void, Nikolay Todorov, Daniel Mackay, Roddy MacGregor and James Keatings can all play there.
“If we’re creating chances, it’s only a matter of time before we take them.
“As a forward, you should never be afraid of missing, it’s as simple and straightforward as that.
“You have to keep going back – if you miss one, go and get the next one, if you miss that, go and score the next one.
“When you start scoring, your confidence improves.
“Our frustration over the two games against Hearts and Cowdenbeath was that for all our good play and all the clear cut chances we’ve made, we haven’t taken any yet, so if we can do that on Saturday then that will be fantastic.”
Robertson has been without Aaron Doran, Lewis Toshney and David Carson so far during the Betfred Cup campaign, with attacker Shane Sutherland still doubtful with a hamstring injury.
Robertson was pleased to welcome three of his senior campaigners back into the squad for the Cowdenbeath match in midweek, adding: “Getting experienced lads like Danny Devine, Kevin McHattie and James Vincent back into the squad is crucial for us, because we’re going to need these players all the way through the league.
“Obviously we had hoped to have Kai Kennedy involved this weekend, but he will be isolating until next Thursday when he will join up with the squad, and then we just need Aaron Doran and David Carson to return from their injuries as well.
“We feel we’ve got a reasonable squad, but like all teams – especially with the muscle injuries that players are picking up – we hope to keep as injury-free as possible.
“If they miss pre-season games and the early League Cup games, it’s not a disaster if we can get them back and ready for the first game in the league.”
Tomorrow’s opponents Dunfermline have been tipped for success in the shortened 27-game Championship campaign, having started their League Cup campaign in impressive form with wins over Dumbarton, Falkirk and top-flight side Kilmarnock.
Robertson feels the Pars have brought in quality to replace talismanic striker Kevin Nisbet, whose 23-goal campaign last year earned him a £250,000 move to Hibernian.
Robertson added: “Dunfermline and Stevie Crawford have spent wisely, they’ve used the little bit of extra funding that they got from the sale of Kevin Nisbet to bring in good, experienced players at this level.
“Declan McManus did great last year, Steven Whittaker is a great signing, Paul Watson is a great signing, Kevin O’Hara is very experienced at this level, Dom Thomas on loan from Kilmarnock as well.
“They’ve got good players, there’s absolutely no doubt about that.
“We feel we’ve got good players as well, we’ve got a few out still, our injury list hasn’t cleared up too much, but they are going to be up there.”