Malky Mackay is close to the stage of accepting that Ross County trio Eamonn Brophy, Gwion Edwards and Ross Callachan will not feature again this season.
Winger Edwards (hamstring) and midfielder Callachan (cruciate ligament) have both been sidelined since picking up injuries in the 2-0 loss to Celtic at the beginning of last month.
Brophy, who is on a temporary deal from St Mirren, and on-loan Wigan Athletic player Edwards only arrived at Victoria Park in January.
With the Staggies four points adrift at the foot of the Premiership with five games remaining, Mackay says the likely absence of three experienced campaigners is a setback in their survival battle.
He said: “Eamonn, Gwion and Ross are ones that we are nearly at the point where I’m not sure if we will get them before the end of the season.
“I’m not going to say no, but I don’t think so.
“With Ross, Gwion and Eamonn, we are looking at it and thinking we could have done with those three experienced guys.
“It’s obviously only been a short period that Gwion and Eamonn have been with us, but both have made an impact immediately.
“That’s what you get with players who have two or three hundred games under their belts, and Ross is another experienced player.
“We’re keeping the focus on everyone that is fit going towards the Livingston game, but on a separate note it has been disappointing to see three good players, good men and good characters miss out at this time in the season.”
Purrington also sidelined from Staggies’ cause
Left back Ben Purrington is also among County’s absentees, having been sidelined since October with an ankle injury.
Although Mackay rates his prospects of a return before the end of the season more highly, the Staggies boss is mindful of his lack of recent action.
He added: “I think he’s in a better bracket than the others. I’m not going to rule him out for the last two games, but it’s a big ask.
“He is running, which is good. It has just taken much longer than we thought.
“It’s not because of any specific setback, but when he started running he started feeling something.
“We have had him checked out constantly by our specialist, and it has just turned into a really nasty injury.
“It was around late-October, and when you count that down, with another month, that’s seven months – which is the same as serious knee injuries.
“Off the back of his first ankle operation it got to a point where it wasn’t getting better. We looked at the scan again, and found there was a piece of bone which had come off and was floating around in there.
“It was complete bad luck, I suppose. They went back in again and cleaned that up, and this is now him getting back from that.”
Pair back in contention for visit of Lions
County will be boosted by the return of Jordan Tillson (pelvic injury) and Yan Dhanda (foot) for this weekend’s visit of Livingston.
Mackay added: “Jordan Tillson is back fit which is great, and Yan Dhanda is back again which is another big bonus.
“He was in terrific form just before he got that freak little injury.”
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