Injury is likely to rule keeper out of opening clash

Dundee United goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist is set to miss their Premiership opener through injury.

Siegrist faces up to three weeks on the sidelines with a knee problem meaning he is likely to sit out United’s curtainraiser against St Johnstone on August 1.

The Swiss number one picked up the injury in training and missed the Tangerines’ 1-0 closed-doors friendly defeat to Motherwell last weekend.

He won’t be involved in Saturday’s clash with Livingston and it looks like it will be Deniz Mehmet between the sticks when Saints come to Tannadice.

Lawrence Shankland (thigh) and Calum Butcher (groin) also didn’t make the Well meeting but they have trained and should be fit in time for the visit of Callum Davidson’s men.

Terrors manager Micky Mellon confirmed Siegrist has had a scan and they are waiting on results before he is definitely ruled out.

“Lawrence and Butcher trained this week but Benji didn’t,” he said.

“We’re getting towards having everybody fit. We just have one or two that won’t be available for a week or two.

“Benji’s been sent for a scan and we believe he’s going to be a few weeks.

“We can only guess right now but it’ll be a minimum of a couple of weeks. “As it unfolds we’ll get a better picture.” Siegrist was a key figure as United romped to the Championship title last season, keeping 12 clean sheets.

The 28-year-old will be a huge miss but Mellon is convinced, between Deniz and new kid keeper Jack Newman, the Tangerines can cope.

Mellon continued: “In an ideal world we’d have them all fit but you have to deal with injuries all the time.

“At the minute we just get on with it. If it became a problem for me I’m sure we’d be able to sit down and try to organise something.

“I don’t think we’re in that place yet.” As for the rest of the squad, Mellon has been happy with what he has seen so far, both in training and against the Steelmen.

He added: “We’ve been getting some good work done, getting to know the players better and they’re getting to know me.

“Of course you can watch them on video but building that relationship is important and we’re getting there now.

“The group is really responsive and we’re in a good place.

“I think the important thing was everybody got match time and we came out of it with no new injuries.

“For me to be able to see them on a football pitch rather than in training was good for building that picture in my head of what we’ve got in terms of how we’re going to play.

“That was important and I learned more coming away from the game than I knew before.”

What has particularly impressed the 48-year-old is the attitude of the players and the standards they set for themselves.

That is giving Mellon cause for optimism with the new top flight campaign just over two weeks away.

He said: “From the outside looking in I expected it to be like that because they’d had success and you’d imagine the team spirit would be very strong.

“That’s not surprised me. They work really hard every day in training and I don’t have to ask them or stop training to up the tempo, they hit it on their own all the time.

“That’s a great credit to them and their professionalism. That’s certainly very pleasing to have.

“I’m happy at the minute but we’ve still got a lot of work to do moving forward in achieving our aim of winning games of football.

“We’re in a work in progress but we’re moving forward.”

Picture: SNS.