Relieved Tony Docherty has seen the majority of his squad return from a flu bug and now he is looking for Dundee to floor Rangers.
The Dark Blues had eight first-team players hit with the virus and they were ordered to stay away to stop it getting any worse. Docherty confirmed that six of his squad are now back in training and the other two should also be back before Saturday’s trip to Ibrox.
The Dundee boss explained: “We had a bit of a bug going about. We had a bit of a scare in the early part of the week with over eight players, you know, reporting symptoms. There’s been a flu going about. There’s loads of it going about it. A lot of the boys have kids and are around nurseries and all that kind of stuff. A wee bit, we’re just precautious. Obviously the medical department are telling us sometimes the boys keep them away because they don’t want to spread it. So hopefully touch wood we’ve contained that now.
“But we’re hopefully over that now. There are only a couple with symptoms and everybody should be back to full training for the last part of the week.”
The virus was the last thing Docherty needed as his squad was already down in numbers because of injury. They didn’t have a fixture last weekend and that has given some of his players closer to full fitness.
Oluwaseun Adewumi came off against Hearts and is touch and go for the weekend. The match also comes too quickly for Scott Fraser and Clark Robertson. Docherty admitted: “Injury wise, Adewumi picked up a knock against Hearts, that’s why he came off. He’s not training with the squad yet, but we’ll give him every opportunity to be ready.
“Scott Fraser won’t make this one. Clark Robertson, we’re getting a scan on Friday just to see where he is and see if his progress is such that he can start being included in squads now.
“He feels in a good place, he feels good now, so it’s to see if we can accelerate his rehab if you like. We’ll see about that, but it won’t be long.”
Captain Joe Shaughnessy has now stepped up his training and Ziyad Larkeche has returned to Queen’s Park Rangers to do his rehab. Dundee lost to Hearts last time out but before that had been one of the form teams in the Premiership. Docherty is looking for his side to get back to that level.
He said: “I was going to say benefit, but it’s not a benefit, I don’t like having a free week. But even after not having a competitive game, we still remain third in the form guide for the last six games, which is good.
“I see in training this week there’s still a lot of players in good form. I think there’s a good atmosphere about the place.
“I think the boys are in a good place, they’ve rested up. We’ve worked on a lot of things in the training ground, made use of the time and we’re just looking forward to this run of fixtures now, which is seven in 24 days I think. Three of them being the Old Firm. So challenging schedule ahead of us, but one that I think in terms of his squad, hopefully we’re ready for.”