St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson faces an injury crisis for the visit of Ross County in the cinch Premiership on Saturday.
Defender Richard Tait (groin) and striker Jonah Ayunga (knee) were already out long term, while striker Alex Greive will be sidelined for three to four weeks with an ankle problem that saw him miss the midweek defeat at Motherwell.
Scott Tanser is waiting to see the extent of his hamstring injury, while Alex Gogic, Keanu Baccus and Curtis Main are all “very, very doubtful” with various injuries for the game against the second-bottom Staggies.
The Buddies squad was depleted during the transfer window when first-team regular Ethan Erhahon moved to Lincoln and 17-year-old Dylan Reid signed for Crystal Palace, while striker Eamonn Brophy joined Ross County on loan and Toyosi Olusanya signed a loan deal with Arbroath.
Robinson is set to have seven teenagers, who have yet to make their first-team debut, on the bench.
He said: “We can’t get a scan (on Tanser) until Tuesday but it doesn’t look promising at the moment.
“Alex Gogic is very, very doubtful for the game, Keanu Baccus is very, very doubtful for the game and Curtis Main is very, very doubtful for the game so you can see where I am going with (this), the squad is going to be tested to the absolute limit.
“We knew that when – under the financial circumstances – we had to move people on during the window, we were going to be pushed if we got injuries and unfortunately, they have all come at the same time.
“I have a lot of belief in the younger players.
“Are they ready to go in and be a top-six side? No, of course they are not. We haven’t given them that game time yet but there’s players in the building waiting on chances. Players with real experience waiting for chances and I have belief in them as well.
“Do we have the depth that we want to kick on or make changes during games?
“Any team that potentially has six or seven starters potentially out – even the top teams – are going to find that a difficult situation.
“But I am not in the habit of making excuses. We deal with it, we get on with it, we make the very best of it and we will put out a very competitive team.”
One silver lining was the prognosis of Greive, with Robinson saying: “It is probably the only positive news we have had on the injury front to be honest.
“We are hoping it will not be quite so serious but it will still be three weeks. We were fearing it could maybe be an end-of-season job.
“But we are looking at three to four weeks with Alex. So that is a huge boost for us considering we don’t have loads and loads of options.”
