Ross County set to welcome back loan stars Kacper Lopata and Aidan Denholm from injury for trip to Edinburgh for vital Scottish Premiership clash against Hibernian
Ross County could be set to welcome back two of their summer signings for this weekend’s vital trip to Hibernian.
Both Kacper Lopata and Aidan Denholm have missed recent matches against Celtic and Rangers through injury, but each loanee has returned to training this week ahead of the capital showdown.
There is also positive news on the status of George Harmon, who was taken off last weekend against Rangers, who is also on course to feature at Easter Road.
As far as the longer-term injury concerns go, Staggies manager Don Cowie has also provided updates on the fitness of Ricki Lamie, Max Sheaf and Will Nightingale.
"Kacper Lopata and AIdan Denholm were back training on Tuesday, so if they come through the remaining days they will come back into the reckoning for Saturday,” Cowie revealed.
"Kacper has had a massive influence at the club since he's come in. We were disappointed not to have him in the past couple of games.
"Aidan has been a brilliant addition to the group. He has come in on loan and can play in a number of positions in midfield. He's the life and soul of the club, so credit to him for the impact he's had.
"Ricki is back training, but he had a little set-back leading into the Celtic game.
"The inconsistency of going from indoor to outdoor maybe with the weather being cold made his Achilles flare up slightly, but he is back training and back involved now.
"Max has been training for a couple of weeks and he's looking good and strong and he's very much part of everything we're doing. He's not getting modified training.
"Will is still inside, so not training on the grass yet. We're hoping he might be back training at the end of this month, which leads us into January and gives us time to assess where he's actually at.”
Cowie will need as many players to be fit as possible going into the always-hectic festive schedule.
On paper, coming off the back of playing Rangers and Celtic back-to-back could lead to an opportunity to build real momentum against the rest of the Premiership over the next few weeks.
However, this Saturday’s visit to bottom of the table Hibs will be a reminder of the cliche that there are no easy games in the top flight – and no easy grounds to go to either.
“It’s not being disrespectful, it’s just being honest to think that we have a better chance of picking up points now,” Cowie reasoned.
“We’ve played the Old Firm twice each now, so that’s gone. Ultimately they are the two biggest teams in the league with their finances, so anything you get from those two teams are a massive bonus.
“Now, we go into a really important spell, and the onus is on us to really attack this run of fixtures we’ve got before we play Celtic in January.
“Losing to them won't define our season, but it can impact your season.
"We now go into a really important spell. The league table is very tight where we are, so it is important we rack up points in these upcoming games – that would give us a real foundation to finish where we want to come the end of the season.
“We went to Hearts earlier this year and got a really good point, so the group will take a lot of comfort from that as we go into a really similar environment.
“We can look back to that and use that experience going into this weekend.”
