The worst case scenario for St Johnstone striker Steven MacLean is a lay-off of up to six months out, Perth boss Tommy Wright has revealed.
Player and manager are keeping their fingers crossed that today’s exploratory surgery on his knee will confirm that floating bone needs removed.
However, the fear is that the discomfort he has been experiencing will require a second micro-fracture operation.
The season of Saints’ Scottish Cup-winning hero effectively hinges on what the surgeon finds when he opens up his troubled knee.
Either way, the operation will be carried out on Tuesday.
Wright reported yesterday: “With Macca the best case scenario is a three or four-week absence. The worse case would be having to undergo more micro-fracture surgery.
“We would be looking at losing him for five or six months in that case. We are getting the same surgeon who carried out the operation last year to look at him.
“We feel that is important. A scan only tells you so much and fingers crossed the problem is down to a floating piece of bone.
“We are trying to be positive about things and hopefully we are just looking at a clean-up operation.
“Macca felt it a bit after the Motherwell game but it had settled down. He had a few days rest but felt it again last Tuesday.”
Last term MacLean bounced back from months on the sidelines to play a key role in the historic cup win over Dundee United.
He has also been a stand-out performer in the early weeks of this campaign and captain Dave Mackay admitted at the weekend that he is probably their most important player.
Tam Scobbie though has also been highly impressive in the early weeks of the season.
Although the length of his absence doesn’t appear to be in doubt, it has not yet been determined whether he will be operated on.
Wright noted: “Tam is definitely out for three months. He is seeing aconsultant and irrespective of whether or not he requires surgery next week, that is the time frame we are looking at.
“The ligament has gone completely but we won’t know for another 24 hours if surgery is needed.”
Midfielder Scott Brown limped away from McDiarmid on Saturday with his ankle in a protective cast and there had been fears he had damaged a ligament but Wright confirmed it was only a sprain.
He is likely to miss Saturday’s trip to Inverness and the League Cup tie at Kilmarnock.
Wright said: “He rolled it and luckily it is something that will only keep him out for a couple of weeks. That is good news.”
The Perth manager will hope to get his chairman’s permission to bring in another striker if the news on MacLean is bad.
The only other centre-forwards he has are loan duo Brian Graham and Adam Morgan, with Graham unable to feature against Dundee United.
“Right now there two or three scenarios but we are working in the dark until the surgeon takes a look at Macca,” said Wright.
“If we were to be looking at six months, I would have to speak to the chairman. In an ideal world, we would get cover in for Tam as well but I suspect the money won’t be available.”
Midfielder Murray Davidson appeared on the bench at the weekend and gets another run in the under-20s at Hamilton.
Wright said: “The latest game will take him over the 360 minutes we wanted Murray to get under his belt. He isn’t far away now.”
Reflecting on the 1-0 defeat to Dundee, Wright said: “Dundee passed the ball better than us and controlled the game without creating much in the way of chances.
“But the big difference between the derby and the wins over Motherwell and Aberdeen was the quality of our passing.
“Of course it is disappointing to lose but we have to move on. We can’t mope about. We have to prepare for the trip to Inverness.”