A month of misery
Shoulder injury puts Hammill on sidelines
St Mirren boss Oran Kearney admits Saints have been dealt a hammer blow as he confirmed Adam Hammill faces a month on the sidelines.
The former Barnsley and Wolves winger had to be replaced just half an hour into his Buddies debut after landing heavily on his shoulder following a challenge from Aberdeen skipper Graeme Shinnie on Saturday. The Englishman was led straight up the tunnel as he was replaced by Ian McShane on another frustrating afternoon for the side. Hammill now looks s set to at least miss the upcoming clashes with Kilmarnock, St Johnstone and M Motherwell. However, the St Mirren boss looked to the positives as he revealed that it appears unlikely the midfielder w will require surgery. Kearney told Express S Sport: “Adam is sore. He has obviously damaged his shoulder and we are looking at potentially five weeks out.It will definitely be a few weeks anyway. There were question marks at one point that he might need an operation but we are hoping that it won’t come to that.
“We are going to have to watch and assess his recovery further for the next couple of weeks and see how it goes.
“The incident happened quite close to us and we had a fair feeling it was a bad one straightaway.
“When he goes down and stays down, and the noise that he made, you knew there was something wrong. It is disappointing but it is a contact sport. It is a freak injury but sadly things happen.
“He is in capable hands with Alex McQueen our physio. Alex has been top notch since I came in and he knows his job inside out. When he is passed back across to us then we know he will be ready to go.”
Hammill only penned a 12-week contract last Tuesday before going straight into the team for the trip to Pittodrie.
After showing flashes of what he is capable of, Kearney admitted the side could have done with the winger the longer the game went on.
But despite Hammill being set to miss a big chunk of his deal through injury, Kearney insists he can still be an asset to the side.
He said: “The deal being so short isn’t an issue, that’s football at the end of the day.
“He has signed a deal here until Janaury and ideally we want him to be fit as possible when he returns.
“The key things are it has to be safe and he has to be ready to play.”