Jordan McGhee gives Dundee boss Tony Docherty another injury blow

Dundee boss Tony Docherty lamented the loss of another key player to injury after Jordan McGhee was forced off midway through the 3-1 Scottish Gas Scottish Cup quarter-final defeat away to Hearts.

The 28-year-old was replaced by Mo Sylla for the start of the second half at Tynecastle on Friday as the struggling Dark Blues went down to a sixth defeat in eight games.

“His Achilles has been bothering him for quite a while,” said manager Docherty. “He’s been playing through it but at half-time he said he just couldn’t continue. He wasn’t able to get into a sprint.

“It affected his performance, I think you could see that in the first half, when our ball retention in that midfield area was poor. But Jordan’s a warrior. He’ll put himself out there, but he had to come off because of injury.”

Docherty has been without several influential players in recent months and he is desperate to get them back on the pitch over the coming months as his team – second-bottom of the William Hill Premiership – bid to ease their relegation concerns.

“I’ve been ravaged with injuries in terms of experienced players this season,” he said. “When you get to this stage of competitions, that’s when players with experience maybe make the right decisions.

“We’ve had too many injuries this season. I’m relying on a lot of people to come back and really contribute to what is now a nine-game season. We’ve got nine cup finals and out of those, we need to win as many games as we can. Our next game’s a derby (away to Dundee United) and we need to make sure we dust ourselves down and be ready for it.”