Hammill blow for devastated Saints boss

New St Mirren signing Adam Hammill had a debut to forget at Aberdeen yesterday. The 30-year-old Englishman, who signed for Saints at the start of the week as a free agent, lasted just over half an hour of his side’s 4-1 defeat to the Dons. Having fallen awkwardly he received several minutes treatment on his arm before being led off up the tunnel with his arm in a sling. “We will send Adam for an X-ray and it isn’t looking too good,” said Saints manager Owen Kearney. “We were coming to the part of the game where we hoped he would get on the ball and get us up the pitch so I am disappointed for him. “We thought getting Adam in then everything would settle. “We are a month past the window so most players coming to you need four or five weeks to get them up to speed which isn’t ideal. “As it is, we have to put as good a stamp on the team as we can right now. “It is important we stay in the mix and stay in touch with the teams around us. “If we make a change or two in January it will probably be dictated to by whether we are in the mix or out of touch. If we are that would make it harder to bring in players. “That is three months away, though, and we have to worry about the now.” Aberdeen have meanwhile pulled their injured forward Niall McGinn out of the Northern Ireland squad for the Nations League double header against Austria and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He missed yesterday’s win after reporting a recurrence of a groin strain after training on Thursday. “We’ve pulled him out of the Northern Ireland squad and he’ll be a doubt for Hearts game on our return from the international break,” said Dons boss Derek McInnes, who will also send teenage midfielder Connor McLennan for a precautionary X-ray on his shoulder injury. Northern Ireland, who face Austria in Vienna on Friday night and Bosnia in Sarajevo on Monday week, were already resigned to being without Rangers defender Gareth McAuley and Conor Washington.