St Johnstone boss lifts lid on Drey Wright injury scare and Barry Douglas squad absence

The late injury that saw Drey Wright pull up against Hamilton Accies is not serious.

Wright’s discomfort late in Saints’ Scottish Cup win was down to a case of cramp rather than anything more serious.

Boss Simo Valakari is now able to look back on the incident, which saw Wright forced to solder on as all available substitutions had been used, and smile.

He also explained Barry Douglas’ absence from his matchday squad was not down to injury.

Instead, with eight new signings bedding in, the Saints boss opted to make personnel changes.

Valakari said: “Drey just had cramp and I was actually going to take him off until we realised we’d used all our subs.

“It was a bit comical so he had to stay on, but he’s fine.

“Barry is fit, it was just my choice to not include him in the matchday squad.

“We have a lot of players and I had to leave six good players out last weekend.

“There are no grey areas in our squad, you are either with the team or against the team – it’s that simple.

“It’s not a case that you play one week so you’re with the team and then the following week you’re not involved so you’re against the team. That’s not the way it works.

“We have a good group of players, they are all desperate to play football and they want to help each other.

“They are good professionals and everyone is pushing together in the right direction.”

Saints return to Premiership action with a trip to face Kilmarnock this weekend.

They are a team Valakari admires – and he expects a tough test from Derek McInnes’ men.

“Kilmarnock is a difficult place to go, I have not been there with their artificial pitch before,” he said.

“They are a team I like, they have good players, they have a clear identity.

“They can also change up the way they play and they get results.

“We beat them in the last game and the team won down there earlier in the season too.

“I think they will be looking at it saying: ‘We have lost to them twice now, so at our home we need to smash them’.

“So we have to be prepared for that. They will be aggressive and try to put us under pressure so we make mistakes.

“We will have to stand up to that but that’s where learning to control games comes in.”