Billy Dodds insists a slightly longer rest for his Caley Thistle players will hopefully avoid a repeat of last season’s injury crisis.
Inverness’ 2022-23 season extended to June 3 when they lost 3-1 to treble-winners Celtic in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden.
They narrowly failed to reach the play-offs in the Championship as a last-day defeat against Ayr United pushed them to a sixth-placed finish.
In 2021-22, their campaign ended with a defeat at St Johnstone in the Premiership play-off final in late May.
A short summer before returning to pre-season, according to head coach Dodds, played a part in some players suffering injuries, while others such as a leg break for defender Robbie Deas were down to sheer bad luck.
There were points last season when a full team’s worth of players were sidelined and it even led to the club playing goalkeeper Mark Ridgers behind an entire side of under-18s in their 2-0 SPFL Trust Trophy defeat at Hamilton in December.
This time, Inverness are taking no chances. The staff and management returned to the fold this week as they prepare for Saturday’s first friendly against Ross Draper’s League Two Elgin City.
Less than two weeks until kick-off
Dodds, whose side face Bonnyrigg Rose in their Viaplay Cup opener on July 15, said: “Some injuries, such as Robbie Deas breaking his leg, we couldn’t do anything about.
“I spoke to my head of performance Ross Hughes and my staff about injuries, and we decided with a short pre-season we would bring the players back this week.
“It’s a short pre-season, but we still had a two-week period before our first competitive game in the Viaplay Cup.
“We had to give them rest. There was no doubt in Ross’ mind, we had to give the boys a rest.
“We played the one of the very last games of the 2021-22 season with the Premiership play-off final at Johnstone and it was the same again last season when we played the Scottish Cup final in early June.
“Therefore, we had to decide, do we bring them in early again where we might risk picking up more injuries? We felt we had to give them the rest their bodies needed.
“We’re going with a shorter pre-season and we will use the first couple of games in the Viaplay Cup to get going. We still will be going in to win those games, but we were caught between a rock and a hard place.
“We thought giving them a wee bit of a longer break, then catch up in the cup games was the best plan of action. Hopefully these are still ties we will win as we aim to progress (to the knock-outs) as we did last season.
“It would have been madness to do the same again. If we bring them back too early, we risk picking up injury after injury. We had to make hard decisions on this, but hopefully it will be beneficial. The boys have come back in great nick.”
More signings will follow – Dodds
Billy Mckay, the club’s 100-goal striker, signed a two-year deal this week after considering a deal from, amongst others, rivals Ayr United.
ICT have also signed Queen’s Park right-back Jake Davidson and ex-St Johnstone midfielder Charlie Gilmour and given new contracts to defender Danny Devine and midfielder Aaron Doran.
Dodds feels they are well placed for early July, but the Championship club are keen to add at least two more players in the summer window.
He said: “We have already added two and we’ll hopefully be adding a couple more and we’ll see what’s out there after that.
“As well as being delighted with Billy and our two new players signing, we shouldn’t forget players like Danny Devine and Aaron Doran, which is great news for the club.
“You don’t reach the play-off final (in 2022) and nearly reach the Premiership or a Scottish Cup final unless you have a really good team spirit.
“That’s one thing that’s in abundance here. That’s why a lot of players have stayed, because it’s a good place to be.”
