St Johnstone winger Drey Wright could be in line for a first team return to face his old club Hibs, while Nicky Clark is also set to clear a big comeback hurdle in the near future.
Wright has been sidelined for a month with a calf injury, while Clark has suffered several set-backs since his ankle was operated on last season.
Both men may soon be in manager Steven MacLean’s match-day squad, with the Englishman likely to only miss one more fixture.
“Drey did some running last Friday and came through it OK so he will step things up this week,” MacLean reported.
“Nicky Clark did a really hard running session at the weekend and came through that, so he will step up too.
“It’s positive.
“Nicky will be integrated into training this week, doing bits and pieces before hopefully coming into full training at the start of next week.
“If all goes well, Drey will hopefully be back for the Hibs game.
“Nicky will be pushing hard too and I’m sure he will want to be involved as quickly as possible so we’ll just have to see with him.
“Once we get Drey fit again and Nicky back in the squad, we’ll look a lot stronger and have more options at the top end of the pitch.”
Set-play frustration
Meanwhile, you can be assured that defending free-kicks and corners will be on the training schedule at McDiarmid Park over the next fortnight
“I’m still disappointed with the goals we lost on Saturday,” said MacLean. “Two set-plays.
“There wasn’t much in the game when Dundee scored the first goal.
“We hadn’t played well but I wouldn’t say they were cutting us open.
“It wasn’t a good performance but it says a lot for the group to keep going.
“The players who came on made an impact on the game.
“A few weeks ago we wouldn’t have got anywhere near that.
“We can be a lot better and we will be a lot better.”
Max Kucheriavyi was a hard man to catch after he scored Saints’ dramatic equaliser and the photographs of club captain and unused substitute, Liam Gordon, getting to his young team-mate first delighted their manager.
“It was brilliant,” said MacLean.
“I didn’t see it at the time because I was celebrating.
“He is the captain of this football club and it shows what it means to him.
“He’ll get back in at some point. He has a big part to play this season.”
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