Dundee will be without two defensive options this weekend at St Mirren – and likely for a number of weeks.
The full extent of Antonio Portales’ knee injury is yet to be revealed but a ligament strain will keep him out of action for some time.
Added to that Nottingham Forest loanee Aaron Donnelly is back with the Premier League club after turning his ankle in his first week of training.
He is yet to make his debut for the Dark Blues since signing more than a fortnight ago.
That debut will be on hold for a while yet.
On Portales, Dens boss Tony Docherty said: “We are still waiting on Antonio’s scan result.
“He’s certainly got a strain in his ligament but it’s just about finding out the extent of it.
“It was so unfortunate for him, he’s just jarred it when he landed.
“It’s disappointing for him and for the team because he’s been doing really well.
“We will just have to wait on the scan results coming back and see what the next steps are.”
Aaron Donnelly
And Donnelly’s extended absence only adds to that disappointment with Docherty revealing how keen the youngster is to get going at Dens Park.
“Aaron is back down at Nottingham getting treatment,” the Dundee boss added.
“He’s got an ankle ligament injury and it’s quite a nasty one, so he’s headed back there for his rehab.
“Hopefully we will get him back up as soon as possible but it’s quite a bad one so it won’t be in the near future.
“It certainly won’t be in the next month or so but we will keep in touch with him.
“He’s a brilliant boy, he’s very invested in being here and his parents were up at the game last weekend even though he couldn’t fly.
“We’re gutted for him but it’s only a setback and we’ve told him that. He will be back with us sooner rather than later.
“He’s a very exciting prospect but these things happen and we have to deal with it.”
Tyler French
One player that will help with the options at the back is the returning Tyler French.
The former Wrexham defender has been out since a Scottish Cup tie at St Mirren in January where he broke his leg.
But he is building up his fitness, having been seen training on the pitch ahead of the Premiership draw with Motherwell alongside Charlie Reilly.
But he’s not quite ready to be thrown into action just yet.
Docherty said: “Tyler has been training with the first team for the last two weeks so the next step is to get him integrated into games.
“We have a match next Tuesday night so hopefully we can get him involved in that.
“With not having a game at the weekend we will have a bounce game on the Friday too, so that will be another opportunity.”
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