Not only does Scott Robertson look certain to miss Dundee United’s trip to Poland next week, the midfielder is also expected to be sidelined for the start of the domestic campaign.
Tannadice boss Peter Houston has revealed that the ankle injury the Scotland internationalist sustained in Saturday’s friendly at Forfar will probably take over a month to recover from.
United’s Europa League qualifier first leg against Slask Wroclaw takes place a week on Thursday, with the Tannadice return fixture seven days later. The SPL season gets under way on July 23.
Houston said, “Scott looks like he’s going to be out for four to six weeks so he will probably miss the start of the season.
“It was unlucky, the Forfar player just collided with him when he was shooting. There’s nothing you can do about these kind of injuries.
“But it doesn’t help when we already have Garry Kenneth and Danny Swanson training with the physio.
“In fact, we only had 12 first-team players training today and some youngsters, so that shows how short on numbers we are.”DifficultMeanwhile, coach Paul Hegarty’s spying trip to see Slask in action at the weekend has confirmed that United’s task in getting through to the next round will be every bit as difficult as they first expected.
Houston said, “Paul was over watching Slask Wroclaw play against Dinamo Zagreb. He came back impressed by what he saw. They played two different teams and did very well.
“He said they look very experienced, play the game high up the park and press the game. The fact they beat Dinamo Zagreb, who are a top side, just confirms that we’re in for a very tough tie.”
Meanwhile, United will send a strong side to a tournament in Oban this weekend.
The Tangerines boss said, “The first team are going but I will be taking a lot of young boys as well.
“We will play five 30 minute games. Usually we try to get everyone over an hour of playing but this time, with the European game so close, it will be less.”
United play a closed-doors friendly against Falkirk today.