| Early-season injury victims Andy McLaren, Bobby Mann and Danny Griffin all got needed match practice in Saturday’s closed-door game against Rangers and will be on duty in the borders.
Also back in contention for the weekend should be goalkeeper Ludovic Roy, out since the opening league clash with Partick just over a month ago, but who is expected to return to full training in the next few days.
The one big doubt remains centre-half Gary McKenzie, who should have the results of a scan on his damaged ankle by the end of the day.
Prior to a specialist’s opinion, Alex was reluctant to say too much about the injury that dogged McKenzie in his final season at Rangers and flared up again after he turned his ankle at Hamilton last month, but it is causing concern.
“Big Gary has basically only been playing since Hamilton and not doing much training between matches and that’s a worry,” said Alex.
“We’ll see what the specialist is saying, but, right, now I don’t think it looks too clever.”
Saturday’s game at Murray Park saw the manager have a look at former Coventry City striker Craig Reid and quickly decide he was not what was required.
Despite the transfer window being closed, Alex will continue to consider free agents as he looks to strengthen his squad and a young player could arrive for a trial this week.
After the transfer frenzy of the last couple of months or so, he is looking forward to being able to spend his time working with the players he already has.
“The squad is still light so I won’t stop looking for new players, but I am glad the window is closed and I can think mainly about the ones who are here,” he admitted.
“It was good to get some of the injured ones another game at the weekend and I think Ludo Roy should be back this week, so that’s a help.” |