Attacker Pavol Safranko is a doubt for Dundee United’s Premiership play-off return against Inverness Caley Thistle on Friday night.
The Tangerines will go into the second leg of their semi-final clash holding a 1-0 advantage after Paul McMullan’s late winner at the Tulloch Caledonian Stadium last night.
But the one big minus on a good evening for Robbie Neilson’s men was Safranko’s failure to appear for the second half.
The Slovakian had looked out of sorts in the opening 45 minutes and Robbie revealed that was down to a virus that had laid him low over the weekend.
“Pavol has not been well for a couple of days, but he felt better and we started him,” said the gaffer.
“He came in at half-time and he wasn’t right, so we had to take him off and now we will see how he is.”
That apart, Robbie was delighted with what was a second win in the Highland capital in just under a month and one that puts his side in pole position to make next week’s final clash with St Mirren or Hamilton Accies.
But he warned there is still work to be done back at Tannadice.
“The tie is far from over, Inverness will come to Tannadice with nothing to lose and have all guns blazing.
“We are just glad to see the first game out and get a bit of a cushion.
“A few of the lads are feeling the rigours of the game and we’ll need to get them ready for Friday now.”
One on that list is McMullan, but the cramp he suffered in the final few minutes is not expected to be an issue.
And his manager was more than happy with his contribution.
“I thought Paul was excellent, he covered a lot of ground for us and took his goal really well.
“Going off with cramp probably summed up his performance. He was everywhere.
“The wee man was great for his goal and he did really well to follow in Nicky Clark’s shot and showed great technique to put the ball in.
“He scored one similar a few weeks ago where the ball has come back out off the post and he’s wrapped it into the bottom corner.”
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