County’s Donald son ruled out for four weeks.

Ross County’s Coll Donaldson faces at least a four week lay-off after it was confirmed he fractured his cheekbone against St Johnstone.

The defender, who arrived from Caley Thistle last month, took a blow to the face late in last weekend’s 1-1 draw.

The 24-year-old former

Dundee United centre-half, who joined in mid-January, has quickly made his mark back in the Premiership.

What was unclear yesterday was whether his fracture would need an operation and potentially a further fortnight’s recovery.

Co-manager Steve Ferguson is preparing for another crucial test at Pittodrie and said: “Coll is through at Aberdeen seeing a specialist. We’ll make sure he gets the best of treatment and is properly looked after, giving him the best chance of returning as quickly as he can.

“He will find out today whether or not it needs to be operated on. The scans and X-rays have shown there is a fracture in his cheekbone.

“If we can get him back on the pitch in four weeks, we’ll take that, but there’s no point me guessing.”

Donaldson joins Ross Stewart, Michael Gardyne, Joe Chalmers and Tom Grivosti on the injury list.

In defence, the Dingwall team has faced frequent upheaval with Ferguson stressing: “What we feel, and I’d imagine everyone else would be the same, is you want that consistency and stability in your backline.

“Unfortunately, we’ve not had a great deal of it this season, whether it be through injury or personnel changes.

“You feel you can maybe tinker a little bit more and gamble a little bit more at the top end of the pitch, but you need that consistent back-line that gives you the core of your team.

“We’ve not had it, but to be fair we didn’t have it in the Championship either, given the injuries we had last season as well.”

Injured: Coll Donaldson