Ross County manager Malky Mackay says his current luxury of a fully fit squad is testament to the Staggies’ medical staff.

County are in the midst of an international break, but have a full complement of players available for the first time this season.

On-loan Southampton left back Jake Vokins was the Staggies’ most recent absentee with a metatarsal fracture, but returned from a three-month lay-off to be among the substitutes for last Sunday’s loss to Rangers at Ibrox.

Vokins’ return to fitness followed that of fellow full back Connor Randall, who recently spent two months on the sidelines with an ankle injury.

With the Staggies having been beset by injury problems in recent seasons, Mackay has made it a key aim to maximise the options he has to pick from.

Mackay said: “We have a fully fit squad at the moment.

“I have to give credit great to our physio Willie Nolan and our sports scientist Liam Jukes.

“The two of them have embraced how I have wanted this to work this season. I know there was a serious of injuries last year. Myself, Don Cowie and Scott Thomson sat down with them both, and went through how I wanted to train and how I wanted the place to work.

“We wanted to bring in players that can be robust and available.

“It’s a number of things. Luck comes into it with injuries, and collision injuries will always happen.

“At any given moment an injury can happen, but you can try and negate muscle injuries.”

Staggies boss grateful for club’s backing in delivering vision

Mackay says the measures he has put in place at Victoria Park have been made possible by the backing he has received from Staggies chairman Roy MacGregor and chief executive Steven Ferguson.

Former Scottish FA performance director Mackay is confident the benefits of what he has implemented will be felt by the Dingwall club for many years to come.

He added: “Mr MacGregor has allowed me to bring in new equipment for the physio, for the gym and for the sports scientist.

“We have made sure that Davie Fraser has been given equipment that allows pitches to be of a standard that the impact on them is not too bad on the joints.

“There have been a lot of little things done to make sure we have as many players out training, and not on the treatment table, as possible.

“It’s going to be for the long-term benefit of the club. Sometimes those 1% factors are hard to see, especially for owners and chief executives.

“It’s a cheque they are having to write for extra equipment, where they don’t see the evidence the following day. They will see it over the next year.

“One of the things I spoke to Mr MacGregor and Steven Ferguson about when I came in was to bring in a high performance system from the Scottish FA that allowed things to improve.

“If the dials are moved up, it means we have a squad that are available for as many games as possible.”