Charles Dunne will miss St Mirren’s start of the cinch Premiership season after being ruled out for three weeks with a calf injury.
The 30-year-old defender had to come off late in the 1-0 ViaPlay Cup win at Cowdenbeath on Tuesday night.
The Paisley club begin their league campaign with a trip to Hibernian on Sunday, August 6.
They play their final group game of the ViaPlay Cup against Group H leaders Forfar on Saturday and the Buddies will win the section with a victory.
Manager Stephen Robinson said: “He is not as bad as we first feared, we are looking probably about three weeks with Charles.
“So it is obviously a blow for us – but not as bad as we thought it was going to be.
“He has had a scan, he will be a similar time frame as Keanu (Baccus, who previously had a calf injury) so hopefully three weeks and he will be back available again.
“It is one of those things. Every club is going to be the same, picking up injuries.
“We have got boys who can step in and sometimes through someone’s bad luck you end up finding someone who appears from nowhere and they take it by the scruff of the neck and become a player that you didn’t see.”
