Stephen Robinson admits a potential serious injury to St Mirren's number one keeper Trevor Carson is a “huge concern”.
But he insists the club are ready to swing into action should the Northern Ireland international face a long spell on the sidelines, with other transfer targets already lined up to step in to the fold if required.
Carson wasn’t risked in Saturday’s Premier Sports Cup win against Cowdenbeath, with Peter Urminsky stepping in while the club assessed the ex-Motherwell stopper’s knee complaint.
A specialist report will help decide tomorrow whether the 34-year-old’s injury requires rest or surgery, which could see him face weeks or potentially months on the treatment table.
While Robinson refused to be drawn on reports linking the Buddies to a loan swoop for Rangers keeper Robby McCrorie, he says the Paisley club are ready to jump into action should Carson be ruled out for a significant period of time.
Robinson told Renfrewshire Live Sport: “Trevor is having scans on his knee. He’s seeing the specialist first thing tomorrow morning (Tuesday).
“We’ve taken him out of everything at the minute, just to make sure we’re not taking any kind of risk.
“If it had been league games, we may have played him. But we’ll know a lot more tomorrow morning; if he needs to rest it, play through it or something needs done with it.
“It’s a huge concern for us. You think you’ve got your squad together, you maximise the budget that you have and then you get a potential blow like this.
“But it happens and it happens to every manager. You just have to deal with it.
“Peter came in at the weekend and showed he’s going to be good back up. He’s still a young boy learning the game.
“We’ve got other things lined up in case, we just have to wait and see where we are tomorrow.
“I think every goalkeeper would be a potential target when you lose your number one goalkeeper.
“I think it’s wrong of me to speak about any other players that are contracted to other clubs. I’ve always said that, not just in this case.”
St Mirren travel to the Excelsior Stadium tomorrow night to face Airdrieonians in their penultimate Premier Sports Cup group clash.
The Diamonds, currently led by player-manager Rhys McCabe, sit above the Paisley in the Group E table and could beat Robinson’s men to second place with a win.
Robinson revealed striker Eamonn Brophy may get his first minutes this season after returning from injury, but the tie will come too soon for new arrival Keanu Baccus who is set to land in Scotland today.
Robinson said: “Keanu will train with a smaller group tomorrow. We have to see where he is with jetlag as well.
“We need to get the boy in the building and then we’ll see where he is fitness-wise. Hopefully he’ll be involved at some stage on Saturday.
“We identified we needed a bit more pace, energy and mobility in the team and we think with almost every player we’ve brought in we’ve done that. Keanu has bundles of all that.
“The front boys haven’t played very much at all so far. Brophy joined in full training today and he’ll be involved in the game at some stage, hopefully.
“Curtis Main joined in full training as well so we’re getting there with the boys that haven’t been available so far.”
