MOST of us don’t have to deal with phone calls from a doctor to break some troubling news to us all too often but for Jim Goodwin, it must be starting to feel like a regular fixture of his week.
St Mirren have already had their fair share of Covid-induced absentees so far this season and yesterday the club revealed that a further three players have dropped out of the squad ahead of tomorrow’s clash with Motherwell.
It’s another setback for the Buddies and Goodwin admits that his stomach sinks when he sees the club doctor’s name come up on his phone after another round of testing is completed.
“The boys are fine,” he said. “They are asymptomatic. They had the positive tests on Monday and since then have been in isolation.
“Two tested positive for on Monday then tested positive with the NHS test as well. One of the players is having to isolate due to being around those individuals.
“It’s a blow. We’re low on numbers as it is. It’s one thing after another but we have to deal with it the best we can.
“You’re hoping you get a text message from the doctor saying everything is fine but when I see her name coming up on my phone because she’s ringing me then I know there’s a problem, and that was the case on Monday evening unfortunately.”
After two Betfred Cup games last week, St Mirren will return to Premiership duty on Saturday when Motherwell come to town.
Stephen Robinson watched on as the Paisley side defeated Partick Thistle 4-1 in their opening group stage fixture and while the victory was not quite as commanding as the scoreline would suggest, Goodwin believes that the Motherwell boss may have picked up one or two pointers from the Jags.
“The Partick Thistle game was alarming at times,” Goodwin said. “There were probably three or four occasions where Shea Gordon ran from deep and ended up in our box unopposed.
“Stephen Robinson was at the game and I said to the players on Monday, ‘As much as we analyse teams, teams are analysing us as well’ and if I was an opposing manager having watched that Partick game back, I’d be thinking to get the midfield to run off the back of them.
“Allan Campbell and Liam Polworth do that naturally and they’re very good at it.
“We have to make sure we don’t give up those kind of opportunities against Motherwell. We didn’t get punished against Partick but I believe we would get punished by better opposition, and Motherwell are certainly better opposition than Partick so we have to be careful.”
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