| A crippling injury list at Tannadice continued to grow during Saturday’s defeat at the hands of St Mirren when influential defender Lee Wilkie limped off with what was believed to be a broken bone in his foot.
That diagnosis has now been revised to a badly bruised big toe, but there seems little chance of Wilkie being ready for either the Falkirk Stadium trip or the final league game when Motherwell visit Tannadice a week later.
Definitely ruled out are long-term absentees Jon Daly and Keith Watson, neither of whom will be ready for the start of next season, while there is also a serious doubt over Greg Cameron for the final two games of the campaign.
Cameron had been playing on despite doing little training because of a hernia, but he was an unused sub against the Buddies.
He is due to have an injection later this month followed by a period of at least three weeks total rest, but, if he can’t take part against Falkirk and Motherwell, that could be brought forward.
Morgaro Gomis, who did play on Saturday, is due to have similar treatment and whether or not he can play this week is unlikely to be clear before Thursday or Friday at the earliest.
On top of that list, Craig Conway and Steven Robb are still not match fit as they battle back from injury, though Saturday’s 90 minutes did suggest fellow- midfielder David Robertson has now recovered from his rib problem.
Suspension is also again a problem for manager Craig Levein and missing this weekend should be striker Noel Hunt after his red card for lashing out at St Mirren skipper Kirk Broadfoot midway through the first half.
United will look at video evidence of the incident before deciding whether or not to launch an appeal that could leave the Irishman available again.
Despite all those selection problems, skipper Barry Robson’s involvement will continue to be as a spectator as he is protected against the one more yellow card that would lead to him missing the first four games of next season. |
