James McPake is confident striker Chris Kane will be fit for the Premier Sports Cup kick-off after the striker missed Dunfermline’s pre-season friendly against Cove Rangers.
The summer signing, who made last term’s loan from St Johnstone a permanent move, has sat out both warm-up games so far.
The Pars followed up Friday night’s 2-0 defeat to East Fife with a 1-1 draw against League One Cove at the Balmoral Stadium.
However, McPake has revealed Kane’s absence is all part of a personal plan for the 29-year-old.
The marksman suffered a nightmare spell with St Johnstone with knee and calf injuries, leading to the two short-term deals he penned with the Perth club last season.
But he is expected to be ready to feature in the cup opener against The Spartans on July 13.
McPake explained: “With Chris, it’s been load management more than anything.
“We knew this when we signed him, that to get him as many games as we can and fully-fit all season, we’ve had a plan that we’re working on.
“Ideally, yes, he would play every pre-season friendly. But there’s not many players who can do that.
“Hence the reason we’re 45 minutes with some of them and you bed them in.
A different approach
“We’re taking a different approach with Chris. He was desperate to play against Cove and he’s getting fed up just training all the time with no games at the end.
“But he’ll be okay for the Premier Sports Cup starting.”
Dunfermline striker Lewis McCann levelled up a Connor Scully strike for Cove to ensure it was a share of the spoils between the sides who will face each other in the cup later this month.
However, all eyes were on new Pars signings David Wotherspoon and Kieran Ngwenya on the outskirts of Aberdeen.
McPake, who ran the rule over three trialists, added: “We knew David and Kieran were only ever going to get 45 minutes. Both of them wanted to play on but we were never going to allow that to happen.
“I thought both were excellent in the first-half and as a team we were decent in the first-half in the things we were looking for.
“Without talking up David too much, because you don’t want to do that with any player, he is what we’ve been missing since we’ve been at Dunfermline.
“Just that real attacking intent at the top end of the pitch where he can do different things. He can set players up, he can find passes that you don’t even see.
“He was drifting in and out, which we had asked him to do. And he was coming deep and getting on the ball.
“But it was important just to get him comfortable on the ball as much as we could, and I thought he did that.
Calmness
“He’s the type of player we’ve been missing and you saw the calmness of the way we played when he was on the pitch.
“Kieran was excellent. He was really dynamic, up and down. Defensively, he was very sound and, attacking, he was a real threat as well.
“I’m looking forward to working with both of them, really, over the longer term.
“Unless there’s any hiccups between now and Saturday, we’ll see both of them for longer at East End Park [against St Mirren].
“Both of them are exciting for the football club, in my opinion.”
