The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Dee hoping Meekings can be spared the knife
DUNDEE: Injured defender to have injection in bid to avoid season-ending op
Dundee boss Jim McIntyre has revealed he is hoping that an injection can cure a troublesome hip injury suffered by Josh Meekings, otherwise the defender could be out for the season.
The English centre-half has not featured for the Dark Blues since the Motherwell game on September 1 at Dens with the 26-year-old having to come off at half-time.
Now, his manager is keeping his fingers crossed that the latest treatment works or club captain Meekings will have to undergo an op.
McIntyre said: “Meekings is having another injection and we will take it from there. But there is the possibility that he could face surgery which, if that was the case, he would be out for the season.
“Hopefully though the conservative treatment of having a jag will get him through it.”
Meekings, of course, sat out Saturday’s draw with St Mirren at Dens with midfielder Martin Woods and striker Benjamin Kallman picking up injuries in the game.
McIntyre is hoping neither will prove too serious, while Roarie Deacon has suffered a recurrence of a thigh problem.
However, defender Andy Boyle, who cut his knee against Motherwell two Saturdays ago, is set to have his stitches out today.
McIntyre added: “Woods has a tight hamstring and Benji has a bit of fluid on his knee so we will see how that settles down. Boyley’s stitches are in a really awkward place on his knee-cap.
“If you burst the stitches then you are in bother and it can take a long time, so we have been really careful with him. He gets the stitches out on Tuesday.
“Deacs has a thigh strain but we think it is not as bad as the problem he had previously, so hopefully we will see him sooner rather than later.”
McIntyre also revealed that defender Kerr Waddell, who is out on loan at Morton, will be staying at Cappielow until the end of the season.
The manager said: “Kerr’s deal will be extended at Morton. We have good options defensively so he will stay where he is.”
McIntyre admitted he was still disappointed that his team did not pick up all three points against fellow strugglers St Mirren, but he insisted the performance and result against the Buddies was something to build on.
He said: “Definitely. Looking back over the game, there were a lot of positives to take. It was an improved performance on what we had against Motherwell and there had been improvements in that game as well.
“Against St Mirren we had more attempts on goal and that’s obviously something you have to do if you want to win games.
“So that was pleasing. It was the first time we have had a full week working with the players without having a midweek game. You could clearly see that the players had taken on board a lot of the things we were saying.
“There were boys who hadn’t played for a long time as well and I did think we tired in the last 20 minutes.
“We needed a wee bit more from the subs that came on, but I thought as a team because of the tempo we played at, we did tire a wee bit. But there weren’t too many disappointments on the day.”