He will go under the knife next week and only then will the likely length of his absence be gauged, but there is no prospect of him being back until into the New Year.

“Colin has damaged his lateral ligaments, so will need an operation to sort it out,” confirmed boss Alex Rae.

“We’ve been told by the specialist he’ll be out for about three months, although they won’t know exactly how long until they get the knee opened up and have a look.”

While it could not quite be classed as good news, the report on full-back Eric Paton was at least “less bad” and he’s had an injection to, hopefully, speed up the recovery process on the shoulder that popped out and back in against Saints, as Alex explained.

“Eric’s news is a bit more positive because he was given the injection and that should make his shoulder settle down quite quickly. We’ll just have to keep an eye on him and see how he responds.”

Even with that one glimmer of hope, the Dark Blues are facing the kind of injury list that, if it was a script for Casualty, would be rejected because it was unbelievable.

As well as McMenamin, Colin Cameron will not play again in 2008 and the year will be in its final few weeks before Jim Lauchlan has any chance of featuring.

On top of that, the mystery ankle problem that’s sidelined Darren Young since the first week of pre-season is still showing no signs of clearing.

Young’s ankle has been scanned, but the medics are struggling to get to the bottom of the injury and there is no date yet for his likely return.

And, while their problems are of a slightly shorter-term variety, Gary MacKenzie and Paul McHale will be out for weeks to come, while Darren Williams has no chance of making Partick Thistle this weekend.

With all that in mind, the possibility of recalling promising young defender Craig Forsyth from a loan spell at Arbroath that started only last week, is being looked into.

And, today, the manager was again searching the country for experienced, and available, performers that could be brought in on loan.

All that remained for the man who is on loan from Cardiff was to prove his fitness, and he duly did that by getting the opener in yesterday’s draw at Hibs. That will put him in contention for a place when ICT visit Tannadice on Saturday, though, given the form of Jon Daly and Francisco Sandaza, the best he can surely hope for in that game is a place on the bench.

Keith Watson continued his comeback with 90 minutes against the Hibees and is making good progress after his knee trouble. Garry Kenneth, who missed out because of a niggling knee problem, could still make the squad for ICT.

While Feeney will be heading off on international duty next week, United keeper Lukasz Zaluska has dropped out of the Poland squad to make way for the returning Artur Boruc.

A few details remain to be tied up before the loan deal is signed. Saints are hopeful Steven Anderson and Kevin Rutkiewicz will return to training tomorrow.