Ross Callachan remains an injury doubt ahead of Ross County’s return to Premiership action against St Johnstone.
Midfielder Callachan has been sidelined since suffering a hamstring injury in the early stages of a 1-0 defeat to Kilmarnock on October 22.
Callachan had hoped to be back in contention following the World Cup break, however Staggies boss Malky Mackay has hinted the visit of Saints could come too soon for him.
Left back Ben Purrington has already been ruled out of the match but Connor Randall, Jack Baldwin and Ben Paton are available again following injuries.
Long-term absentee Alex Samuel is also back in training, following a cruciate ligament injury which he suffered at the start of 2022.
Mackay said: “We’re kind of touch and go with Ross Callachan. He’s maybe another week away.
“Ben Purrington is another few weeks away, but Connor Randall and Jack Baldwin are back involved again.
“We’ve got a reasonably good clean bill of health, just a couple that are a couple of weeks away that we have to be careful with.
“But the injury side has been managed very well by our staff.
“Everything is looking well as far as that is concerned.
“We’ve actually got Alex Samuel back training again now as well, which is a huge thing for him off the back of the terrible time he has had.
“We’re delighted he’s back in.”
Bout of illness has hit Staggies’ squad
Mackay revealed a number of his squad have been under the weather, in the midst of the cold spells which have hit the Highlands in recent days.
He is confident there will be no ill-effects come this weekend, adding: “We’ve had a lot of coughs and colds in the last week.
“It seemed to go through the place a week ago, but now everyone is back training again. There are still coughs and colds, but we’re on the up side of that.
“It’s good to get back, we’re obviously in the cold air but it is what it is.
“We enjoyed our week away in Spain and then got back into it here last week, getting ready to get back into league football again.”
Return to action a week later than Mackay would have liked
County are preparing to return from a five-week break during the World Cup.
Their last match came on November 12, when they suffered a narrow 2-1 loss to Celtic at Parkhead.
The Staggies are looking to kick on after moving up to 10th in the table, with Mackay insisting he would have preferred to get back up and running last weekend.
He added: “It’s maybe a week longer than I would have liked. Everybody would have been ready to go last Saturday mentally.
“That would have been four weeks – a week off, a week in Spain, a week back here and a week to prepare for the game – but we’ve had an extra one. We’ll crack on and get ready for this week.
“We’ve got this run of games over Christmas, and then there’s no break in January, so we’ll be straight through.
“I think everyone’s itching to get going again, especially after watching the excitement of the World Cup.”
