Dundee are struggling to shake off an illness bug ahead of their trip to Queen’s Park on Friday night.
The Dark Blues face a crunch clash with the side immediately above them in the Championship table.
However, it’s unclear how many players will be missing from Gary Bowyer’s side or who may be playing at less than full fitness.
Lee Ashcroft and Paul McGowan missed the 2-1 victory over Ayr with the bug while goalkeeper Harry Sharp has been out of action, too.
Ashcroft described the illness, saying: “One day I was all right and the next I wasn’t. It just hit me like a ton of bricks. I was gubbed.”
Unfortunately, it is still around the squad, though things are beginning to improve.
Manager Gary Bowyer said: “We have had a couple missing with illness, that hasn’t seemed to have gone away.
“It’s not Covid so that’s a positive, it’s a stomach bug.
“It disrupts training a little bit in terms of personnel missing but you just have to get on with it.
“It’s difficult to say at this moment how many might be missing.
“The last two weeks have been the same – you can’t really say anything because it’s different the next day.
“Today (Wednesday) is the first day we have had nobody off with it.
“We also have one or two with knocks and we’ll have to see where we are with them before finalising everything for Friday.”
January key
Victory would see the Dark Blues leapfrog the Spiders in the remarkably tight Championship leadership race.
Tuesday’s victory for Ayr over Partick leaves the top six sides in the division separated by just three points.
Dundee are sitting in fifth place but Bowyer isn’t concerned with league position right now and expects the table to remain very tight for some time yet, with the January transfer window crucial.
“Last week Queen’s Park went and won convincingly against the league leaders at that time,” the Dundee boss said.
“It looks like the league leaders will be continually changing.
“But there is a hell of a lot of football to be played.
“We’ve just completed the first third of the season; I don’t think anybody who hits the top right now will be getting carried away.
“The league is mad, you look at how tight it is. I think January will be big for everybody.
“It looks like if you can deal in January, get the right ones in and, in some cases, get the right ones moved on, it will play a big part.”
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