'He's on the phone' - Millen reveals Dyer tied up with transfers

Andy Millen hopes Kilmarnock boss Alex Dyer has been busy phoning up some new recruits to boost the injury-hit Rugby Park ranks.

The Killie assistant boss stood in for Dyer at Thursday’s pre-match press conference in order to allow the manager to focus on transfer matters ahead of Monday night’s deadline.

The Ayrshire outfit signed George Oakley last week but Millen admits they could do with further new faces after being hit with a raft of call-offs.

Defender Stuart Findlay became the latest addition to their casualty list when he limped off during Wednesday’s defeat by Livingston with an ankle knock.

And Killie could be down to the bare bones once again when they host St Johnstone again on Saturday.

Explaining why he was talking to the media instead of Dyer, Millen said: “Alex has got some business he is doing. He’s had a couple of phone calls. Obviously we’re getting towards the end of January so he’s trying to do some business. Hopefully he’s discussing (players coming in).

“We can’t afford to rest any players at the moment. Unfortunately we’ve had a spate of injuries. Stuart Findlay was injured last night so that’s maybe six players out of our squad.

“We’re hoping some of them are not too long. Kirk Broadfoot has been out for three weeks but we’re getting to the point where we need our better players back in the squad to make us more competitive.

“If those players come back fit and healthy tomorrow then our squad is strong enough.

“But at the moment it’s very, very light. On the bench on Wednesday, we had six outfield players and two of them are 19-year-old kids who have just come into the squad. No disrespect to those kids but we’ve basically had four subs.

“Stuart will be assessed today, his ankle is quite severely swollen up. It will maybe take another couple of days to let the injury settle down. We may even need to get a scan on it to see how bad it was.

“Every team will go through bad spells with injuries and suspensions and unfortunately it’s our turn.”

The good news is that captain Gary Dicker has resumed light training while Millen’s son Ross made his return to action against Livi after a three-month lay-off.

And while there was no sign of Yousouff Mulumbu or Greg Kiltie at the Tony Macaroni Arena, Millen is hopeful they will not be out for long.

He said: “(Youssouf and Greg’s situation) will clear up sooner rather than later. Findlay has joined the group that are injured but hopefully there is a wee bit more light at the end of the tunnel as they have been out for a week or two already.

“We’ve got a lot of games coming up and hopefully these boys can come back in sooner rather than later to help.”