Calf issue threatens to add Billy Mckay to Billy Dodds' injury list at Inverness Caley Thistle
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Caley Thistle have been hit by a fresh injury scare – with Billy Mckay potentially joining the list of casualties.
The experienced striker is being assessed after exiting Saturday’s 3-2 Scottish Cup victory over Stirling Albion with a calf issue.
The latest blow came just as manager Billy Dodds welcomed the return of on-loan Hibs winger Dan MacKay.
Luckless this season on the fitness front, Dodds has regularly had to cope with nine or 10 absentees from an already tight playing squad.
Mckay, substituted for winger MacKay after 64 minutes, is current club top scorer with six goals.
The 34-year-old now looks set to join Robbie Deas, Zak Delaney, Scott Allardice, Tom Walsh, Roddy MacGregor, Shane Sutherland and Austin Samuels on the sidelines.
Skipper Sean Welsh, rested on Saturday, and defender Danny Devine are back involved but still working back to full fitness.
“Billy has a calf injury unfortunately, I could see he wasn’t moving well and we’ll now have it assessed,” Dodds said.
MacKay’s return was a positive to be drawn after a difficult 90 minutes against the League Two Binos was settled by Aaron Doran’s second half winner.
Caley Thistle also gave a substitute’s debut to Ryan Barrett (21), a free agent snapped up on a short-term deal until January after
being freed by Newcastle United in the summer.
“Young Ryan did well when he came on,” Dodds said. “He has a bit of tenacity and is another body for us.
“The positives were getting Dan MacKay back and adding Ryan – and we’re through to the next round.”
Albion rattled the lacklustre hosts in the first time, with Dale Carrick scoring twice, either side of replies from Wallace Duffy and Max Ram. Doran grasped the winner close-in after great work from Nathan Shaw.
“Overall, the performance wasn’t good enough,” Dodds said. “I have seen teams play like that before, just trying to do enough against lower division teams – and suddenly they are out of the cup.
“At least this didn’t end up as a shock.
“Stirling were energetic, they believed and took responsibility, which we didn’t.
“We knew Stirling would be tough opponents. When you get momentum in football, as they have, I don’t care what division you’re in, you always believe you have a chance.
“I told the boys to start quickly. If we could have got up to the pace like we did against Ayr United then I felt Stirling might struggle. They were a credit to their manager, but we were miles off where we wanted them to be.
“I told the boys they have to look at themselves. They should take responsibility, play at a pace and tempo, but we had none of those qualities.
“For nearly all of the team to have an off-day made it hard for us, but we still had somewhere in our mindset, guts and determination.
“We kept going and we got the winner. I’m delighted we’re in the next round.”
