Dundee United are hoping that the international break will give three players a chance to recover from injury and push themselves into contention for their next SPL game against Celtic at Tannadice.
Long-term injured Craig Conway (medial ligament strain) and Barry Douglas (ankle ligaments), as well as Darren Dods, who was forced to leave the field against Kilmarnock at the weekend with a knee problem, may all be available for selection against Neil Lennon’s table-toppers.
However, United first-team coach Gary Kirk admitted that the match might come too soon for Danny Swanson, who is working to correct the pelvic problems that have been causing hamstring strains.
Kirk said, “Darren Dods will spend this week with our physio Jeff Clarke.
“Dodsy felt his knee during the game at Kilmarnock and we decided to take him off at half time.
“It was the same knee that he had his cartilage operation on during the summer.
“So, we are hoping that a week’s physio will enable him to resume training again next week and be available for the Celtic game.”
He added, “We are also keeping our fingers crossed that Barry Douglas and Craig Conway may make the match.
“We will look to give them some game time next week in the Forfarshire Cup tie against St Johnstone and see how they react.
“However, it is looking likely that Danny Swanson will miss the Celtic game. We are certainly more positive over Douglas and Conway.”
Meanwhile, Mihael Kovacevic, who suffered a cruciate ligament injury while trying to keep fit during the summer, is set to take another step on the comeback trail.
The big defender has returned home to Switzerland to rest up before coming back to Tannadice to hopefully start training once again.
Kirk said, “Mihael is doing all right. He is at the stage of his rehabilitation where he needs to rest his knee. So we have given him a fortnight off to spend time back home in Switzerland.
“We are hoping he can start doing some light training on his return.”