Leigh ankle injury scare leaves Del in Euro tie sweat
Derek McInnes faces a Europa League sweat after Greg Leigh limped off 22 minutes into Aberdeen’s friendly draw with Inverness.
The on-loan NAC Breda defender rolled his ankle and now the Dons’ medical team will treat the injury and hope it is nothing more sinister ahead of Thursday’s clash with RoPS at Pittodrie.
The Dons boss felt the Borough Briggs pitch played a major part in the left-back’s injury and was the reason he decided not to risk Craig Bryson, who has still to play since signing from Derby.
McInnes said: “Leigh just rolled his ankle and got a wee bit of a fright, as we all did.
“I’m hoping it’s just a normal kind of ankle roll and it will settle in 48 hours.
“We’ll have a better idea on Sunday morning.
“It was a truly awful pitch so it does make it a bit more treacherous. It only started to play a wee bit better in the last 10 minutes when the rain came on and there was a bit of speed in it.
“I didn’t put Bryson on because I just didn’t think it was worth the risk.
“We’ll get some more work into him over the weekend. It doesn’t mean to say that he’s not fit for Thursday.”
Curtis Main was denied early on by Inverness keeper Cameron Mackay before both sides lost players to injury. Caley Thistle fullback Shaun Rooney and Leigh suffered ankle injuries before Niall McGinn was given half an hour to make his comeback after surgery.
Inverness’ best chance in the first period came from Charlie Trafford’s long ball. He found Aaron Doran who had got in behind the defence but his lob was off target.
Aberdeen, who rested Sam Cosgrove and Ryan Hedges because they had niggles,
looked a bit more dangerous in the second period.
ICT’s Nikolay Todorov came on for Cameron Harper and within seconds gave away a penalty as Jon Gallagher beat him to a ball.
Main stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way.
McInnes was pleased to see his summer signing from Motherwell get off the mark.
He said: “Curtis’s link-up play is good and on another day he could have scored three or four. The sharpness is always the last bit to come.
“I’m pleased with his performance. He missed a few days of training so the intention was to get him about 80 minutes.
“He’ l l feel good about getting his f irst goal. I thought he showed enough threat to get more.”
Inverness stepped things up and got their leveller after Tom Walsh’s free-kick was deflected wide. His corner then eventually fell to Brad McKay who forced home at the back post.
Gallagher had the ball in the net in the final 10 minutes but was flagged offside while Dons sub James Wi lson missed a late chance.
Inverness boss John Robertson said: “Shaun’s foot is twisted and we will assess it. We’re hoping it’s nothing more than a twisted ankle although it could be ligaments. We won’t know until the swelling comes down.
“It’s a morale- boosting result. We’ve played four Highland League teams and now we have deliberately taken three hard matches against Aberdeen, Hearts and St Johnstone ahead of the Betfred Cup.
“We want to be tested.”