St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson admits injury concerns as side prepare to face Hearts

Stephen Robinson believes he’s had to deal with one of the worst injury crises in his time at St Mirren, as he readies his side to face league leaders Hearts.

The Paisley side is already without captain Mark O’Hara, Australia international Keanu Baccus and Premier Sports Cup final goalscorer Jonah Ayunga as the three continue their rehabilitation from long-term injuries that won’t see them return for a couple of months.

He was then forced to take off Killian Phillips, Liam Donnelly and Shamal George during his team’s 2-0 loss to Falkirk on Saturday.

While George may be fit to take on Hearts on Wednesday, Phillips will see a specialist over his shoulder injury and learn whether he can anticipate a quick return, or surgery and a long spell on the sidelines. The absence of another key midfielder would be a huge blow to the Paisley side as they look to bounce back from successive defeats against Motherwell and Falkirk.

Dan Nlundulu is also a doubt for midweek after picking up a knock but Alex Gogic returns from suspension and Oisin Smyth is available after being recalled from a successful loan spell at Partick Thistle.

Robinson made no attempt to disguise his unhappiness at the past two performances when he spoke after the weekend defeat, and said his players need to stand up to the challenge in front of them.

But the manager did admit that it was hard to change his side around to respond to Falkirk’s second goal when he had already lost three players. He highlighted having a winger in central midfield and needing to throw new signing Alan Campbell into the action after not having played for six months.

“Obviously we’ve got the long-term injuries with Keanu Baccus, Mark O’Hara and Jonah Ayunga,” he said. “Shamal came off because he couldn’t strike through the ball, but we have a late test on him to see [if he can face Hearts].

“It’s improved dramatically to be fair.

“Killian Phillips has had a tear on his shoulder. He sees a specialist on Wednesday morning, but it’s about extremes. If he needs an operation, he’d probably be out three months. If he doesn’t, he could probably start.

“We’re sort of waiting on that judgement call, which actually was a lot more positive than we originally thought.

“Liam looks like he may not be as bad again after coming off on 25 minutes. So again, we’ll have to look and see where he is as well.

“So yeah, they’re all things we need to assess over the next 24-48 hours.”

The Buddies’ boss has talked about the need to bring in new players to supplement the squad, and had previously revealed that a move for a striker had collapsed after the player suffered an injury last week.

Asked if he was any closer to adding new faces, Robinson said: “Not at this moment, no.

“We’re trying very, very hard. As I’ve alluded to before, it’s a very hard window to bring players in.

“Players demand money that we don’t have and we don’t have someone that’ll just give us the money to sort this short-term problem out. So it’s an ongoing situation.

“We’re trying our very best to get people in to help us out. And we’ll see if we can do that before Wednesday.

“But at this moment, we’re not sure we’re much closer to that.”

Looking ahead to the trip to face the Premiership leaders, Robinson said he had been hugely impressed by Hearts under Derek McInnes and the form that has seen them set the pace in the title race.

“I think they’ve done a terrific job,” he said. “From the start of the season, they’ve led the way.

“They showed their character on Sunday with the 1-0 result and the save from Craig Gordon was incredible.

“But they’ve got quality throughout the squad.

“It’s refreshing. It’s nice to see a manager from the UK doing very, very well. We’ve got some very good managers here as well.

“We have to put on our best performance to make sure we get a result. I love going to Tynecastle. I love the atmosphere there and it’s under the lights as well.

“So it’s something we’re going to embrace. We’ve shown that we can compete with Hearts.

“We beat them in the cup and we were very unfortunate not to win the game at home due to decisions.

“We need that level of performance again. We need that level of belief.”