Dundee have been handed SEVEN major selection boosts ahead of Saturday’s home clash with Hearts.
The Dee will have six players back available from injury lay-offs plus a possible debut for Mexican loan signing Victor Lopez.
Among them is Dundee club captain Joe Shaughnessy after a long battle back from a cruciate knee ligament injury suffered last April.
The weekend clash with Celtic was postponed due to Storm Eowyn and gave the Dark Blues players a weekend off.
The lack of action has also, though, allowed the injury crisis at the club to ease.
Josh Mulligan has shrugged off the illness that saw him miss the derby victory last week while Charlie Reilly is also back from loan at Inverness and is fit once more.
“We’ve got Jordan McGhee back, Antonio Portales, Charlie Reilly, Joe Shaughnessy and Ziyad Larkeche all back,” said Dens assistant boss Stuart Taylor.
“There’s only two now on the treatment table, Scott Fraser and Billy Koumetio.
“It’s good to see everybody back and about training again, full pelt.
“Everybody’s back in contention.
“We’ve done all our tests with the lads and they’re all back now fit and ready to train and ready to play.
“The training week this week will be rigorous. It’s been the first week we can do a full training week preparing for a Saturday game.
“So we’ll put them through the mill in the next few days and they’ll be ready for Saturday.”
‘Full pelt’
McGhee has been out since the win at St Mirren on December 29 – in the meantime news broke of a pre-contract agreement to sign for Motherwell in the summer.
Portales, meanwhile, was ruled out for six weeks around the same time but is back ahead of schedule.
Reilly has been out since October while Larkeche got injured at Aberdeen in November.
“Ziyad has been working really, really hard and his testing markers are good,” Taylor added.
“He was back full pelt again on Monday, which was brilliant, as were Antonio, Jordan and Charlie.
“It was great just to have them all back. It brought a real freshness.
“It’s like a couple of new signings.”
‘Absolutely flying’
The big return, though, is skipper Shaughnessy.
It has now been over nine months since he limped off against Rangers at Dens Park with his serious knee injury.
“Joe’s been out on the grass for a few weeks training now,” Taylor said.
“He’s been absolutely flying, looks great.
“Probably one of the best I’ve seen coming back from that injury.
“He’s been on the grass for a wee while and is looking really, really good.
“What an influence he has been about the lads and he’s got that leadership quality about him that just standards lift as soon as you go on a training pitch.
“Great to have him back.”
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