Chris Kane will bid to prove his fitness this week after Dunfermline welcomed back Ewan Otoo from injury.
Kane has not featured in any of the warm-up games so far and again sat out Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to St Mirren.
Manager James McPake had previously explained the St Johnstone striker’s absence as ‘load management’, and expressed confidence the 29-year-old would be available for the Premier Sports Cup kick-off next weekend.
And, whilst there must be some concerns over that prediction after Kane missed the visit of the Buddies, there was more positive news with the return of Otoo.
The midfielder has been recovering from a knee injury sustained in April but played for an hour against St Mirren, who took the spoils thanks to a first-half strike from Toyosi Olusanya.
“Brilliant,” said assistant Dave Mackay of Otoo’s return. “You could see in the first-half the quality and running power he has got.
“It is brilliant to have him back, we have missed him.
“There are a lot of positives there. David Wotherspoon got more minutes into his legs, as did Kieran Ngwenya, who came in later.
“A lot of boys have yet to get quite up to speed. Chris Kane is back training and he will be involved on Wednesday.
‘The real stuff’
“We are getting there. We have more or less the full squad and we are looking forward to the real stuff starting next week.”
Dunfermline lost their opening pre-season friendly, against East Fife, and then drew 1-1 with Cove Rangers last Tuesday.
Defeat to St Mirren means they are still waiting to taste victory before another stiff challenge against Dundee on Wednesday.
However, Mackay is confident the Fifers are making progress ahead of their cup opener against The Spartans on Saturday.
“We knew that it would be a tough test against a team that is playing in Europe in the next couple of weeks,” he said of St Mirren.
“They had a great season, they are a physical team and they are really well drilled. They are a really good team, physical and athletic.
“We knew that it was going to be a good test and it turned out that way. I thought we gave a decent account of ourselves.
“We created some chances but in terms of a pre-season game it was a good work out for us.
“There has been progress from the East Fife game, then on to Cove during the week was progress again, a better performance. There are a lot of positives.”
