Ross County midfielder Jamie Lindsay faces an anxious wait to discover the extent of an ankle injury which caused him to be stretchered off from Sunday’s 3-2 Betfred Cup defeat at Hibernian.
Lindsay, who joined County on a permanent deal from Celtic in the summer following a successful loan spell at Dingwall last term, was withdrawn during the second half of Sunday’s loss after landing awkwardly in Hibs’ penalty box. Skipper Marcus Fraser and full back Stelios Demetriou also suffered knocks later in the match.
The 22-year-old was sidelined with an ankle injury last term, and County co-manager Stuart Kettlewell says new signing Don Cowie could be on stand-by to cover if Lindsay faces a lengthy absence.
Kettlewell said: “I think Jamie’s is probably a bit nastier than Marcus’ injury.
“Jamie had something similar last season so we just need to assess that to see if that’s an injury that’s going to keep him out for a period of time.
“On the positive side, Jamie has been exceptional for us since myself and Steven Ferguson took over, and his replacement is Don Cowie, who we felt did well when he came on the pitch.
“It was great to get him on, he’s not played a lot of football for a long time but Don acquitted himself very well.
“We’ve got a bit of the walking wounded, because guys put their bodies on the line against Hibs.
“We need to look after them this week, we’ve got a really difficult fixture away to Morton on Saturday so we will put this one to bed very early and pick the players up, and start to focus on a Morton side that have started the league campaign very well.”
Despite County’s loss at Easter Road on Sunday, Kettlewell was encouraged by the way his side stood up to the Premiership test posed by Neil Lennon’s Hibs side, adding: “The harsh reality is we’re a Championship side, as much as we might believe ourselves we’ve got Premiership players.
“We know it’s going to be an exceptionally tough league, but we acquitted ourselves well in one of the most difficult venues in the country.
“I’m not being disrespectful, I came to Easter Road two weeks ago to watch Hibs against Motherwell, who for me are a very difficult side to play against.
“If we’re comparing it in that sense, we feel as if we acquitted ourselves really well, but we’ve got players with heads down really disappointed in the manner of the defeat.
“We don’t want to be losing games no matter where we come and play, we back ourselves wherever they go.”