Meanwhile, the Dark Blues were having their first outing of the summer today when they met Morton in a closed-door game. The majority of the first-team squad were available for that one, bar Callum Macdonald, who remains a bit behind the rest of the players after undergoing surgery on his knee.

Manager Jim Duffy has still to decide whether to take the defender with the Dundee party that will travel south of the border on Thursday. The Dens men are scheduled to play games against Belgian outfit CS Brugges on Friday and Blackburn Rovers reserves on Monday in closed-door clashes at Rovers’ training complex.

“Although Callum has started doing running, he won’t take part today and I’ve still to decide whether he’ll come with us on Thursday,” said Jim this morning. “We’ll have a look tomorrow and see how he is before we make our minds up.”

Meanwhile, striker Steve Lovell has rejected the opportunity to join Leicester, according to the English outfit. The Dark Blues forward had looked set to make the move to the Walker’s Stadium, but has now decided to stay at Dundee.

Leicester manager Craig Levein told the club’s official website, “After discussing the issue with his family back in Scotland, Steve felt that it wasn't’ the right move for him at this moment in time.”

Midfielder Mark Fotheringham has returned from Germany after a trial spell with Freiburg.

DUNDEE UNITED were also in action today, drawing 1-1 with Airdrie in a closed-door game. The Tangerines left immediately after the match for England, where they will play a closed-door game against Everton tomorrow before facing non-league side Bamber Bridge in a friendly on Saturday.

However, Lee Mair has stayed behind at Tannadice to work on building up his fitness after being sidelined since the start of the year with a knee ligament injury. That’s likely to see the defender miss the start of the season, which begins a fortnight on Saturday with a home game against Aberdeen.

ST JOHNSTONE manager Owen Coyle was remaining tight-lipped today on reports linking him with former Dundee defender Dave Mackay (writes James Masson).

Meanwhile, former Dundee United defender Scott Paterson and ex-Falkirk midfield man John Henry are continuing to show their paces with Saints. Scott didn’t take part in the weekend victories over Stirling Albion as he had just come into the club, and a decision is likely today as to whether or not he’ll feature in tomorrow’s closed-door match against East Stirling.