Robinson hails return of ‘quality’ McCormack

ROSS McCORMACK will make his second Motherwell debut this afternoon as he returns to Fir Park after more than a decade away. The 32-year-old (below) rejoined the Steelmen on a six-month loan from Aston Villa at the beginning of the month before travelling with his team-mates to Tenerife for warm-weather training over the winter break. And Motherwell boss Stephen Robinson has confirmed McCormack will be ‘involved at some stage’ of today’s Scottish Cup tie against Ross County after recovering from a knee injury earlier than expected. ‘Truthfully, we don’t sign players of Ross’s quality,’ said Robinson. ‘That’s the reality of it. We either sign boys who are very good athletes who need to improve on the ball, or boys who are very good on the ball but can’t do the defensive side of it. ‘We never sign the finished article, but Ross has got everything. If we can get him to a level of fitness, his ability will shine but in terms of the dressing room, when Ross McCormack walks in, people sit up and take notice. ‘People forget we have a really young side and when things aren’t going well you need experienced heads in the team. ‘Before New Year, Peter Hartley would have been the only player aged over 30 who was fit and available with Trevor Carson out, so we didn’t have that breadth of experience. ‘Ross will give us that — as well as his ability, creativity and goals, he gives us that experience that we’re badly lacking. ‘It’s not often we get offered a £12million player, we just don’t do that at Motherwell, so it’s a brilliant bit of business for us.’