St Mirren captain Mark O’Hara facing month out but injury ‘not as bad as feared’

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson will be without skipper Mark O’Hara for four to six weeks due to a recurring thigh problem but admits he feared a much-longer absence.

The Buddies midfielder picked up the injury as he missed a stoppage-time penalty in last week’s 3-2 Premiership win over St Johnstone.

Ahead of Saturday’s trip to Ross County, the Saints boss recounted a clutch of injury concerns as he revealed O’Hara’s prognosis.

“It’s been a challenging week,” said Robinson, who has Alex Gogic back from suspension but will be without the banned Toyosi Olusanya after he went through the disciplinary points threshold.

“Ellery (Balcombe) hasn’t trained all week with a knee issue. We’ll have to assess him today.

“Scott Tanser hasn’t trained all week. Richard Taylor got stretchered off last week, but he isn’t quite as bad as we first feared.

“But again, he hasn’t trained, so we need to look at Richard and Scott today.

“Evan Mooney took a knock to his ankle yesterday in training, but we’re hoping he will be OK.

“Conor McMenamin looks like he could be struggling with a kick from last Saturday, which he carried on with. But it’s really played him up this week.

“Mark is going to be four to six weeks, we believe, after having a scan, which, again, isn’t quite as bad as we first feared. We thought it might be for the season.

“It’s been a reoccurring injury for Mark, which is really, really frustrating.

“I thought him and Killian (Phillips) were excellent last week in the first half, arguably our best away performance.

“The football we played, the goal we scored, Mark was heavily involved in all of that.

“So it’s a big blow and for Mark personally, it’s been number of times that he’s had this issue since his Motherwell days.

“So it’s trying to get to the bottom of it and managing it. He’s a diligent boy who does everything in his power to stay fit so it’s unfortunate, but as I said, not quite as bad as we first feared.”

Saints are sixth in the table, three points behind Dundee United having played a game more.

Robinson is generally pleased with the way the season has panned out to date as he prepares for a tough test against Don Cowie’s County side, who lost 3-1 at Hibernian last week.

The Northern Irishman said: “Ross County are a good side. I watched their game against Hibs and they were very unfortunate

“I thought they were excellent in the first half. And again, small things go against you, a decision goes against you on the stroke of half-time, and it changes the course of the game.

“Like ourselves, Ross County have got good players, they’ve got a good manager as well. And no one goes to Dingwall and has an easy game.

“You see even the top sides go and struggle there so we know what we will be up against.

“It’s forecast not to be a nice day either. So we have to go with the mentality that we win at all costs.”