Dundee captain Simon Murray was stretchered off in the first half of the 3-0 Premier Sports Cup last-16 defeat to Aberdeen at Pittodrie with what looked like a bad knee injury. Head coach Steven Pressley admitted he is extremely concerned about the striker.
The Dark Blues will wait for the swelling to go down before Murray gets a scan next week. Pressley said: “I really don't know but we're very upset about that.
“He's more than a player, he's a captain for us, he's a great person, he's such an influence around the place. We've seen the way he reacted to the situation. It was difficult.
“I'd spoke to him earlier on in the day as well, just about the fact that you should keep playing as long as you can because you're long-time retired.
“We're all very upset about the situation. He's going home, and then I think once the swelling settles down, he'll obviously get the appropriate scan.
“The initial thoughts are of concern because of the way he reacted, but fingers crossed.”
Already short of firepower
Dundee are already without Ash Hay for six weeks, leaving them short of attacking options. Pressley, a former striker himself, is now likely to need two new forwards.
He is already looking to add to Dundee's defensive options. He confirmed: “It will.
“We'll obviously have to hear the extent of Simon's injury, but it could certainly push us into a situation where originally we were looking at one, we might have to look at two options.
“But I don't want to really talk about that until we know the extent of Simon's injury.”
Defeat a blow after last week's win
Pressley knew there would be ups and downs. The 3-0 defeat at Aberdeen was a blow after last week's win, and he knows the game was lost in an 18-minute spell.
He added: “I'm very real about the situation. I think everybody was getting really, really excited last week - except me.
“But the reality is that we're going to get days like this, this is part of the journey. I don't pretend. But there was a lot of good things within that today.
“There was a lot of energy, a lot of aggression in our play. But you've got to give Aberdeen credit. Today, I think they deserved to win. We have to learn and improve from that.”
Frustration over new rules
Pressley was also irked that his team had lost a goal because of the new rules. Joe Bevan went down with a head knock. He got up as referee Nick Walsh signalled for the physios, so the striker had to go off. That was when Aberdeen scored their first.
“It was a little bit of a frustration,” the Dundee head coach added. “There was a little bit of confusion as well.
“Idris [Odutayo], I don’t think, realised that the drop ball was given back to us at the time and he kicked it out of the pitch.
“There was a lot of confusion with what was going on at the time, so I'm a little bit unclear as to why.”
