Ross County defender Jamie Reckord will miss the Staggies’ opening Scottish Premiership match against champions Celtic on Saturday after being sidelined with an achilles injury.
Reckord missed Saturday’s 2-0 pre-season friendly defeat by Dutch Eredivisie side NEC Nijmegen after picking up the knock, with manager Jim McIntyre confirming the left back could be out for up to two weeks.
The loss of the 23-year-old is a blow to the Staggies, with Reckord making the left-back position his own last season. He made 27 appearances after joining in October following his release by English Championship side Wolves.
However, McIntyre is refusing to dwell on Reckord’s absence and is content with the options he has to cover for the trip to Parkhead.
Former Rangers and Aberdeen defender Richard Foster played the first half at left back against NEC before being replaced by fellow summer signing Darren Holden, who joined from Hartlepool United.
McIntyre, who has made 12 signings this summer, said: “It’s not serious and he’ll hopefully be back in training in a few days.
“He’s been to the podiatrist for insoles. They can change the biomechanics in the body, so it will maybe take a week or two for him to get used to them. It’s nothing serious.
“We’ve put in a lot of work, so to only have one injury is very pleasing.
“Looking across our backline, we’ve got great cover. That was the thinking behind our signings, especially at the back.
“Richard Foster can play both full-back positions, while Marcus Fraser can play centre back and full back, along with our other centre backs. We’ve got really good flexibility there.”
McIntyre is equally pleased with the competition for places between the sticks, having added Stoke City goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann on a six-month loan to compete with Scott Fox, who joined from Partick Thistle.
McIntyre reckons Austria under-21 international Bachmann will push Fox all the way, adding: “Daniel was actually sitting on the bus to go away with Stoke’s first-team when he got the call to come here.
“It tells you what they think of him. We’ve been very impressed with what we’ve seen so far.
“We’ve been equally impressed with Scott Fox. Sometimes it’s very difficult to get two goalkeepers competing for the same spot but we feel as if we’ve got that. We’ve got good selection problems.”