Dunfermline remain hopeful that striker Gozie Ugwu will come back into contention for tomorrow’s league game at Airdrieonians.
The 21-year-old has netted seven times for the Pars so far this season and grabbed a hat-trick in the 4-0 win over Stirling Albion at the end of November.
However, the Pars took a risk by playing Ugwu in the 4-2 victory over Ayr last week and he suffered a recurrence of the calf injury which had kept him out of the initial Scottish Cup tie down at Stranraer a week previously.
Ugwu failed a fitness test ahead of Tuesday night’s cup replay and he will be assessed over the next 24 hours ahead of the Diamonds’ visit.
“Gozie probably wouldn’t have started on Saturday he would have been on the bench because he only had two days training since he last played,” he said.
“So he only really had one proper training session with us and I was going to leave him on the bench, but needs must.
“When Lewis called off we had to get Ross Millen into centre back and Andy Geggan at right back, and that meant Ryan Thomson had to come back into midfield.
“But I thought Gozie looked short of maybe that wee bit edge to him, because he missed so much training.
“We’ll see how he is over the next couple of days.”
Jefferies had his players back in training yesterday to prepare for tomorrow’s game against Airdrieonians and is hoping they can quickly put Tuesday night’s Scottish Cup exit behind them.
The Pars found themselves with a mountain to climb just before the hour mark as they went 2-0 down to Stranraer and, despite a Ross Millen penalty reducing the arrears, the visitors went on to score a late third to book a fifth round spot against Dundee United at the hosts’ expense.
“There was plenty effort but not enough guile or a better final ball,” Jefferies added.
“When we did hit them on the break we had two or three great chances, but we were exposed two or three times.
“You can’t do that you’ve got to go and kill teams off and be clinical.
“We have been in the last couple of league games to be honest but, as I’ve said before, the only way we can make up for this is to roll our sleeves up and try to win this league.
“That’s what we intend to do.”