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Derek McInnes |

“We got Niall scanned yesterday and it’s ascertained he’s got severe bone bruising which is painful enough and he is very tender in that area. Thankfully no ligament damage, no long term damage and it’s just a case of letting it settle down so he will be out for Saturday. We’ll get him re-scanned again the middle of next week and hopefully there will be a significant improvement with that. We don’t anticipate him being out any length of time but certainly it’s still painful enough to rule him out for Saturday.

“Barry is not fit for tomorrow. He is going along well. We didn’t rule him out for the Thistle game initially but he’s given it every effort but he’s not quite there yet unfortunately. Willo Flood is coming along nicely but won’t be available for the next couple of games and Chris Clark is also making good progress.

“We’ve also had a bitter blow this week as Russell is out this week and will be out for the next few weeks as well. Russell made a challenge in training at the start of the week and dislocated what he thought was his pinky but there has also been a small fracture in his hand as well and he’s going to have to go in to a cast. It’s a bizarre injury, he caught this hand in the back of Declan McManus’ shirt, but it’s been painful for him.

“There are a lot of key players out, players who have a big influence on the team, both in performance and in personality, but there are times in the season when you come across this. Hopefully we are getting ours out the way at the outset and I am sure every team will have to face similar injuries but we’ve got enough good players here to go and get a win on Saturday.

“We did say at the start of the season we felt numbers were a bit tight but felt we had a level of ability in the youngsters that would come through and we were encouraged, even in the game against Stavanger with a lot of them and we’re encouraged by what we see every day in training. They’ve become important players for us and that importance will come to the fore in the coming weeks.

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