Paul Hartley has admitted that this season has been his worst since he became a manager in terms of the miserable run of luck Dundee have had with injuries.
The Dark Blues boss has had to chop and change his line-up constantly with a whole host of players spending time on the treatment table.
Once again tomorrow at Motherwell he will be down to the bare bones with six players set to miss out.
Gary Irvine suffered a knee injury against Partick last weekend and Hartley was already resigned to being without the full-back along with Kosta Gadzhalov (groin), Simon Ferry (foot) and Iain Davidson (ankle).
Hartley said: “Gary has swelling on his knee which we will just have to let settle over the next few days.
“We are hoping it is not too serious but he took a knock when one of our players landed on him.
“Davo is still out with his ankle injury. It has not cleared up and he is probably at least another two weeks away.
“Paul Heffernan and Luka Tankulic both took knocks in training so we are looking at going with 18 players again.”
When asked if this was the worst run of injuries since he became a manager, he said: “Yes, I think so. We weren’t too bad at the start of the season but over the last few months it has gradually got worse.
“Hopefully it will clear up before the end of the campaign but there are no guarantees.
“However, we will have Greg Stewart back for the Motherwell game. He has trained the last couple of days.
“It is good to have him back as he is a vital player for us.
“He has been excellent in everything he has done.”
Dundee will travel to Motherwell on the back of a seven-game unbeaten run in the league and Hartley admitted that despite all the injuries, confidence is growing within his squad.
He said: “The longer you go unbeaten, the better it becomes.
“Your workplace is always better. When you come in on a Monday on the back of a good result, your work is more enjoyable.
“It has been like that the last few weeks.”
While delighted with the run his players have put together, Hartley admitted he has already started identifying signing targets for next season.
However, he will definitely not be making the wholesale changes of last summer again.
He said: “We are in the process of looking at targets and speaking to players.
“We want to try and get our business done very early this year.
“We have looked at a lot of games this season to see where we could strengthen.
“There won’t be a big turnaround in players compared to last summer but there will be ones coming in.”