Gary McDonald faces an anxious wait after surgery on the St Johnstone midfielder’s injured knee was ruled out by his surgeon.
The former Aberdeen man was fully expecting to be operated on after he broke down in a half-time warm-up at St Mirren on March 25.
However, the knee specialist has decided against that course of action, and now the player is keeping his fingers crossed that a course of injections sorts him out.
Perth boss Tommy Wright said: “He can’t get an operation because his injury isn’t suitable for it. So he’s had an injection in it and hopefully that will settle it down and we can manage it. But it is a worry for him.
“He’s damaged bone, but the position of it doesn’t let him have the microfracture operation that Steven MacLean had.
“It could be good news or it could be bad news. If the injection works it will be good news, but if it doesn’t then we’ll have to look at other ways of getting him back fit. It may need more injections.
“On Monday night he was convinced he was getting the operation on Thursday but the surgeon said differently.
“He’s never missed a game or training session in a long time, so we don’t know how long this defect has been in his knee.”
If the injection proves successful, McDonald could yet be available for next weekend’s Scottish Cup semi-final.
Wright added: “Gary’s not ruled out of anything now. It will all depend on how it settles down.”
Meanwhile, Wright has called on his squad to put the semi-final to the back of their minds and concentrate on beating Kilmarnock.
He still believes that Inverness and Dundee United are in their sights.
Wright had no complaints with the post-split fixture list.
He said: “Getting Dundee United at home is good. That’s another derby to look forward to.
“We still haven’t ruled out trying to catch them up. We’ve got Celtic at home as well.
“For the fans, we’ve got the two longest trips away Aberdeen and Inverness but all in all we’re quite happy with it.”