St Johnstone keeper Alan Mannus out for up to two months

St Johnstone goalkeeper Alan Mannus has broken a finger and will be out of action for six to eight weeks.

The Northern Ireland international picked up the injury in training yesterday.

Following the postponement of Saints’ Monday night match at Tannadice, Mannus would have been ruled out of Saturday’s League Cup semi-final against Aberdeen.

Now it has turned out he would have missed it through injury in any case.

Veteran keeper Stevie Banks will now get a longer than expected run in the first team.

Manager Tommy Wright reported: “Alan damaged his thumb in training yesterday. At this stage we don’t think he will need an operation but he will see a specialist later in the week and we’ll have more information after that. However, we are looking at six to eight weeks absence as a minimum.”