Ross County stars Eamonn Brophy, Gwion Edwards and Ben Purrington facing uphill battle to feature before the end of the Scottish Premiership season
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Ross County manager Malky Mackay is not counting on having several of his injured players back available before the end of the season.
Yan Dhanda was eased back into the fold before the split, coming off the bench against Aberdeen, and Jordan Tillson is available for a return this Saturday against Livingston.
Unfortunately for the Staggies, though, that is where the good news ends.
While Ben Paton and Ross Callachan are longer term injuries, there was optimism as recently as two weeks ago that a return was imminent for Ben Purrington, who has not featured since mid-October.
Furthermore, more recent issues picked up by loanees Eamonn Brophy and Gwion Edwards were hoped to have cleared up in enough time to allow both men to play some part in the Staggies' battle against relegation after the split.
However, the picture now looks more bleak according to Mackay, who is now veering towards it being unlikely that any of Brophy, Edwards or Purrington will play before the summer.
“Ben is running, which is good – it has just taken much longer than we thought," Mackay explained.
“It’s not because of any specific setback, but when he started running he started feeling something. We have had him checked out constantly by our specialist, and it has just turned into a really nasty injury.
“That’s seven months – which is the same as serious knee injuries.
“Off the back of his first ankle operation it got to a point where it wasn’t getting better. We looked at the scan again, and found there was a piece of bone which had come off and was floating around in there.
“It was complete bad luck, I suppose. They went back in again and cleaned that up, and this is now him getting back from that.
“It has been a real blow for Ben, he’s a terrific lad. Credit to him, because he is Mr. Low Maintenance – he comes in here with a smile every day.
"He has had good character, so it has been a real disappointment in terms of the unfortunate nature of how long that has been because he is somebody that would have helped us.
“I’m not going to rule him out for the last two games, but it’s a big ask.
“I think he’s in a better bracket than the others unfortunately. Eamonn, Gwion and Ross are ones that we are nearly at the point where I’m not sure if we will get them before the end of the season.
“I’m not going to say no, but I don’t think so."
