Neil McCann is hoping Jack Hendry will still be a Dundee player by the time their William Hill Scottish Cup replay with Inverness comes around.
McCann’s side were held to a 2-2 draw by Inverness, with Celtic target Hendry a notable absentee from the line-up.
The defender’s omission was enough to spark alarm among the Dark Blues faithful, with fears he might soon be on his way to Parkhead.
But McCann urged fans not to read too much into the 22-year-old’s no-show – explaining illness was the reason for his absence.
Dundee will now have to do it all over again against John Robertson’s men, with the Highland replay set for Tuesday, January 30 – the day before transfer deadline day.
And the Dee boss is keeping his fingers crossed Hendry – who has been priced at £1.5million by his current employers – will still be part of his squad by the time the window shuts.
“Jack has the flu,” said McCann. “We’ve had a couple of boys actually with cold, it’s rife at the minute as you know.
“I’m hoping he will be back in on Monday and ready to go for Hibs on Wednesday.
“I’m not prepared to lose any of my players, certainly not without a fight, so I’m looking forward to seeing Jack back in training on Monday.”
Dundee were sluggish out of the blocks and paid the price when a mistake from Josh Meekings – who was deputising for Hendry – was punished by Caley Thistle playmaker Aaron Doran.
George Oakley missed a golden chance to make it 2-0 just before the break and it looked like a costly mistake as Sofien Moussa redirected A-Jay Leith-Smith’s strike home, with Mark O’Hara then putting Dundee ahead after a solo run.
But Oakley made amends with two minutes left when he prodded home the equaliser.
“We didn’t deserve to win it but we didn’t deserve to lose it either,” said McCann. “You could see we were rusty after the winter break.”
Caley Thistle boss John Robertson praised Oakley for not allowing his first-half blunder to affect his game.
He said: “Strikers will miss chances. It was just a lack of conviction and George didn’t catch it as good as he would have liked. The pleasing aspect is he’s gone back in, got involved and got the equaliser.
“We’re not favourites for the replay but we’re still in the cup. It’ll be a tight game. There wasn’t much between the two sides, which is a huge compliment to our players.”
