Ross County midfielder Greg Tansey has been dealt a setback after suffering a recurrence of his long-standing groin problem.
Tansey missed around a month of action after arriving on loan from Premiership rivals Aberdeen in January nursing the injury, which he initially picked up during pre-season training with the Dons last summer.
Tansey was convinced he had got to the root of the issue following work with physio Kevin Bain however the Englishman was withdrawn after 55 minutes of Saturday’s 2-0 defeat against St Johnstone, and Staggies manager Owen Coyle confirmed he will miss this weekend’s vital game against Partick Thistle at Victoria Park.
Coyle said: “Greg had a recurrence of the injury and, to be fair, that probably had an effect on the team.
“With Greg unable to get about the way he normally can, that has a domino effect. Such was his desire to do well for the team, he tried to push himself through it when he might have been better served saying he was feeling it.
“Looking at how we he did against Hearts in the previous game, we could see he wasn’t near that level.
“Greg was desperate to help the team. In hindsight, he would have been better coming out of the game.
“He certainly won’t be available for Saturday or, I’d suggest, the next couple of weeks.”
Coyle has described the match with the Jags as County’s biggest game of the season, with Alan Archibald’s men three points above the bottom-of-the-table Staggies in the first of 10 games remaining.
The Staggies boss was critical of the display against Saints and has cancelled his players’ day off training today, as County step up their preparations for the encounter which would see them move off the foot of the league with a victory.
Coyle added: “Ultimately, after Saturday, there are still going to be an awful lot of games to go, but I would certainly class it as the biggest game of the season.
“The opportunity is there, at home, to win those three points and benefit from what that does straight away in terms of league position.
“There’s no doubt about it, it is the biggest game of the season – bar none.
“The players know I’ll back them to the hilt but they have to give us something to back them with in terms of quality and endeavour.
“Collectively, we didn’t do that against St Johnstone – and I say we because the first person I look at is myself in terms of preparation.
“Football can change very quickly. If you want to feel sorry for yourself, you’re no good here at Ross County. If you want to pick yourself up in the morning and be prepared to do something about it, that’s what we’ll do.
“There will be no day off this week. They’ll be in getting ready for Saturday, getting their minds focused on a tough, but very winnable game against Partick Thistle.
“By winning that games, we can leapfrog them and start to look onwards and upwards.”