| Robson has been carrying an ankle knock for the last three games, including the first leg in Finland a fortnight ago, and continued discomfort with it led to a trip to hospital last night for a precautionary X-ray.
Good news from that today was that there is no damage to the joint and, although he will have to grit his teeth for a while, he is fit to keep training and playing.
“It good news for Barry because the X-ray shows there is no break or even a risk of him doing further damage if he plays,” explained boss Gordon Chisholm.
“That’s not saying it isn’t giving him pain, because it is. But he can play through it and he’ll be available for Thursday.”
Also now expected to be fit is defender Paul Ritchie, who was training for the second day running this morning. As long as he suffers no reaction, he will add his experience to the rearguard.
Recent signing David Fernandez is not eligible for this round of the competition and has, therefore, being doing extra work in training, though, for a couple of reasons, not as much as was originally intended.
“David did a double session yesterday, but he’s picked up a slight strain so we have eased him back a bit today. On top of that, he lasted the 90 minutes at Motherwell on Saturday better than expected,” explained Gordon.
“When you consider that he has not been playing at that level for some time, his fitness was very good and at no time was I thinking he would have to come off because he was tiring.
“The boy himself was a bit surprised how well he lasted — maybe he just got caught up in the game and his adrenalin carried him through, but, whatever the reason, I am not complaining.
“Although we would have liked him for Thursday, it is good we can work on him for the rest of the week and have him ready for Inverness on Sunday.”
Meanwhile, in a gesture to young fans, United have decided under-12s will get in for just £5 on Thursday. |
