Stuart Kettlewell insists Motherwell are ready to dive back into the transfer market after losing Paul McGinn for the rest of the season.
The Fir Park skipper requires surgery on a thigh injury after hobbling off against Hibs last weekend and takes the Fir Park crock list to NINE. Kettlewell has also lost goalkeeper Aston Oxborough for three months with a fractured finger and midfield ace Lennon Miller with a fractured bone in his ankle while Steve Seddon, Aspostolos Stamatelopoulos, Jair Tavares, Harry Paton and Zach Robinson have joined long-term injured Ross Callachan on the sidelines. Liam Gordon will also miss the weekend trip to face St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup as he follows concussion protocol.
McGinn had only returned to the side this month after three months out with a similar injury. The 34-year-old is out of contract in the summer although Motherwell have an option to extend that by a further 12 months. Kettlewell – whose career was finished at 30 by a hip injury – insists the setback doesn’t mean the end for the veteran defender.
But he said: “Paul was devastated, we’re the same. As always we’ll support Paul the best way we possibly can. We’ll all understand that looks like season over for Paul, which is really disappointing. He’s been one of the, if not the, most consistent players since I came to the club a couple of years ago. He was made captain, he’s just a big influence on everything we do on and off the pitch.
“Just because Paul generally trains and plays all the time. I know he’s come back from a longer-term injury, but he’s not really been used to it in his career. The fact that he’s well over 500 games now would suggest he’s been a robust player and somebody who’s always out there through thick or thin.
“There are players who can be unfortunate and have had lots and lots of injuries and they’ve had to brace themselves from an early age to be able to deal with that.
“From a personal point of view, I was someone who had pretty much one injury and that was the one that finished me at the age of 30. I’m not suggesting that for Paul. But it’s something you’ve never faced. We have to make sure there’s a club and a group of people we get around about Paul and make sure that we help him along the way.
“I’ve seen him obviously in the last couple of days since it happened and he’s a no-fuss guy. He’s the type of guy who realises what’s ahead of him and what he has to do and he’ll not feel sorry for himself and will just get on with it.”
Kettlewell has already spoken to chief executive Brian Caldwell about bringing in reinforcements – but admits Well will need to be patient. He said: “I’ve spoken to the board. We want to try and make sure we’ve got options in positions.
“I’m sure you’ll see with some of the names that we’re talking about there and some of the people missing that it’s a huge loss. But what we don’t have is watching one or two clubs out there pay fees for players and have significantly bigger resources than we do.
“If we can try and be cute and clever and pick off one or two players we think can help us along the way, who can step in the obvious voids that we start to see, then that’s what we’ll try and do.
“But this is really difficult. It’s difficult for a lot of clubs but essentially what happens with clubs like Motherwell, and it did for us last January as well, is we need to wait for so many things to happen at potentially bigger clubs before anything starts to move. Then you have to be dependent on other clubs and other things shifting there.
“We’ll have to be patient. We’re trying our best, we’re working endlessly to try and make sure we can strengthen the group and help the group out, but I can’t really put a timescale on that. The club have been supportive in that. They want to try and help us out as much as they can within the remit we work from.”
McGinn’s agony only adds to Well’s problems ahead of Saturday’s trip to face St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup. Kettlewell said: “In terms of injuries this is possibly the worst stage that we’re at.
“We’re looking at a couple of months for Steve Seddon. He had further investigation yesterday and the fallout from that is that Aston Oxborough – further investigation, further consultation on that. Looks like we’ll be without him for what could be three months.
“These are massive blows to us. We hope that Lennon Miller gets his boot off next week, but we need to wait and see how that goes. Jair Tavares had been for further investigation. He sustained an injury at the tail end of last week.
“Liam Gordon is currently following concussion protocol, which the medical guys are well on top of. He’s feeling better but we took him off the pitch. That’s something we never take a risk with.
“Apostolos looks like he’ll be out for another couple of weeks as well, so I’m not expecting him back. This week he’s feeling better but there was an injury there in terms of a tear in his calf.
“It’s significant injuries, and there’ll be questions asked of myself and the club with that number of injuries. I understand that but I have to go over the point that we’re very meticulous in what we do.
“Ross Callachan is back on the pitch but Ross hasn’t played really. I think he had a few minutes against Ross County. So we need to wait and see where that goes. Looking at the last check of the board the other day, we were looking at nine pretty serious injuries and nine players we are without.
“That’s hard for us to absorb and from that you’re looking at a lot of significant players and some players that have been very good for us. Some for a long period of time, some since they came to the football club. So it’s not an excuse, it’s just that on an injury front, it’s a bleak outlook.
“Me, as always, I’m the most positive person in the world. What we do is we start to focus on the players available and fit. That’s what I’ve done since the start of the season and we look to kick-start this next part of the season and obviously that starts with the Scottish Cup.”