Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Hughes questions character of Inverness squad

Caley Thistle travel to Parkhead to face Celtic this weekend.
Caley Thistle travel to Parkhead to face Celtic this weekend.

Caley Thistle manager John Hughes has questioned the character within his squad after Inverness’ latest spate of injury problems.

The Highlanders were without defender Josh Meekings (knee), midfielder James Vincent (knee) and Lewis Horner (foot), along with long-term absentees Aaron Doran (groin), Dean Brill (knee) and Richie Foran (knee) for Saturday’s 2-1 loss against Kilmarnock.

Hughes does not expect any players to return for tonight’s Scottish Cup fourth-round replay against Stirling Albion but has called for some of Caley Jags’ absentees to show more desire to play through the pain.

He said: “We’re hoping these guys can get back but it’s not looking like the case. If it was the Scottish Cup final I wonder whether they would be fit or not. It’s a question of character – are they going to play through a knock or not?

“I used to run a knock off and right now it’s a call to arms. Everybody stand up and get this show on the road. I can understand injuries and you’re under the guidance of the medical team but sometimes you need to be your own man.

“You need to get going. It’s about character, getting out there every week no matter what. We need to be where we were last year, no injuries and everyone at it every week. Everyone wants to be in the team and we’ve just come off that a bit.

“You ask any professional and nine times out of 10, even when they come back on the first day of pre-season, they’re carrying a few aches.”

Inverness were held to a 0-0 draw by the League 2 Binos in their initial tie a week past Saturday, and after the weekend defeat by Kilmarnock he is looking for an improvement tonight.

Hughes added: “It’s going to be very difficult. We get a second chance at it and Stirling deserved their replay.

“What bemuses me is, when I analyse where we are, you look at the way we performed against Celtic, we were fantastic even though we lost 3-1. It wasn’t evident on Saturday at times.

“That’s the standard we’ve set and we need to hit it every week. We have to give Stirling all the respect they deserve and we have to play at a tempo like we did against Celtic. Anything less and we’re letting ourselves down.”