Hamilton Accies have been handed a major boost by news that striker Andy Ryan could be fit to face Dundee on Saturday.
The 28-year-old was substituted 79 minutes into the 3-2 defeat at home to Championship leaders Ayr United on Friday, but boss John Rankin says he might have shaken off his knock.
Similarly, Miko Virtanen could be included in the squad, while on-loan Newcastle midfielder Lucas de Bolle looks to be recovering well from a concussion issue.
Ryan, who is joint-top scorer at the club alongside Andy Winter on six goals this season, certainly adds an attacking edge to Accies, and Rankin will give him every chance.
He said: “Andy Ryan came off at the weekend with what we thought at the time, going down the way he did, that it was going to be something really serious.
“But it looks like he’s going to be running this morning, so it looks as if he’s going to be fine.
“He has had problems on his opposite side before, so from what we thought it was, it’s not that and he will hopefully be fine for Saturday.
“Miko has a wee bit of inflammation on his Achilles, which we knew would happen anyway, but he’s had an injection and will be fine.
“Apart from that, Lucas is making good progress; he’s strengthened his legs and his neck, so hopefully he’s not too far away.”
Meanwhile, Rankin says his side can head to Dens Park with confidence, despite being stuck on the bottom of the table.
Rankin admits it angers him to see Accies’ position, but his side need to help themselves more often.
He said:” It’s never nice to look at the table and see that you’re bottom of the league. It’s not where we want to be.
“It angers me looking at it, and it’s frustrating, looking at it.
“But the players don’t look short on confidence.
“We’ve lost twice to Dundee this season and we are looking to put it right.
“I felt against Dundee here in the first league game [2-0 defeat] we let them dictate the game for the first 30 minutes and then after that we came onto our own and caused them problems.
“They got a goal late on, on the counter-attack, which at that point was irrelevant, because it was about three seconds to go or whatever it may be.
“We can cause them problems, but as I keep saying, we need to be more solid and ruthless, defensively.
“We need to be harder to beat, rather than letting a cross or a shot or whatever. We need to put a body on the line to try and stop that.
“In the league we’ve been conceding in the first five minutes too often, and we're not giving ourselves a chance.
“That needs to be eradicated as soon as possible, and the players know it can’t continue.”
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