Elgin City’s preparations for Saturday’s Scottish Cup second round tie against Clyde have been hampered by an illness bug which has ravaged their squad.
Manager Allan Hale, along with several first-team players, are among those who have been struck down in recent days.
Elgin already have Jake Dolzanski, Rory MacEwan, Matthew Cooper and Lewis Hyde sidelined, with Ryan MacLeman, Ryan Sargent, Brian Cameron and Kyle Girvan carrying knocks.
With training numbers severely reduced on Thursday, assistant boss Stefan Laird hopes the extra 48 hours’ rest can boost the Black and Whites’ selection options.
Laird said: “There’s a wave of illness going through the camp. Allan is not well at all, and several players have been sick.
“The training number on Thursday was the lowest number since we have been at the club.
“I don’t think we have had below 14 at training – it’s usually around 20.
“We only had 10 training on Thursday, and two or three of them were 17-year-olds.
“Quite a lot of the staff were off sick as well, so it’s been a skeleton crew.
“It has given people another couple of days to recover. They worked really hard on Tuesday, so fingers crossed.”
Ex-Aberdeen midfielder Young makes debut as Clyde boss
City face fellow League Two side Clyde, who are bottom of the division after 10 games.
It will be ex-Aberdeen midfielder and new boss Darren Young’s first game in charge of the Bully Wee, after he replaced Ian McCall earlier this week.
The two sides shared a 0-0 draw when they met at New Douglas Park last month, in a game which Elgin played the majority of without defender Dolzanski following an early red card.
Although Elgin sit second in the table with an unbeaten record, Laird is reading nothing into Clyde’s league position – and considers them favourites for the tie given the investment in their squad.
Laird added: “Everyone looks forward to the Scottish Cup. There are a lot of fairytales involved.
“It usually brings up something a bit different, but for us it has brought up something quite familiar for both teams.
“I don’t think anybody that follows our division is under any illusions that Clyde have got, if not the strongest, certainly up close to being the strongest squad in the league.
“They have got a big budget – they have been quite open about that. They are certainly in a false position, as to what their personnel at the club is.
“It’s a game that I still think, on paper, Clyde will be favourites for – if it’s player for player.
“They have a new manager in, and we all know what tends to happen. We have seen Darren unveiled, and I’m sure he will be very confident about their chances on Saturday.
“It will be a really tough game for us, and one where we will need to be at our very best if we want to get through to the next round.”
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