Inverness Caley Thistle make plea to recall loan players to ease injury crisis
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Inverness Caledonian Thistle coach Barry Wilson has confirmed that the club have asked for special dispensation to let them recall players away from the club on loan to help ease their current injury crisis.
As it stands, Wilson believes the Caley Jags could be without 10 outfield players for tomorrow’s home match against Championship leaders Ayr United.
That would leave a substitutes’ bench – already short in numbers over recent months – at its most threadbare yet.
Caley Thistle currently have Robbie Thomson and Aly Riddle on loan at Clachnacuddin, Ethan Cairns at Forres, Harry Hennem at Wick Academy in the Highland League and Lewis Nicolson at Elgin City in League Two.
While all five of those players are also teenagers with limited first team experience, they do have more minutes under their respective belts than those Inverness could be forced to call on as part of the match day squad this weekend.
Wilson, then, hopes to have an answer to their plea as soon as possible to bolster their ranks.
“We’ve applied to the league to see if they will let us take our loan players back from the Highland League, we’ve asked for special dispensation,” the 50-year-old revealed.
“We’re waiting to hear whether that’s successful or not.
“These are young boys, 18 or 19 years old, but it would save us from having schoolboys on the bench.
“Last week we have Aaron Nicolson who got 10 or 15 minutes, and we might have two more out this week.
“That leaves you with myself, (Scott) Kellacher and (Ryan) Esson. It’s that bad unfortunately. At the minute we’ve got zero options, that’s not an excuse, it’s fact.
“It was during Covid, but St Mirren got special dispensation to do that. Although the circumstances are slightly different, we’re hoping the result is the same.
“I don’t have a clue when we’ll know, but hopefully it’s before Saturday.”
A visit from the league leaders, unbeaten in their last five games, could threaten to make it a perfect storm for Inverness tomorrow.
With a Scottish Cup match looming next week, though, Wilson has called on ICT’s players to give their all and get what would be a big result to buy some time for players to return to fitness before their next league match.
“We’re just all rolling our sleeves up and getting to work,” Wilson added.
“We can’t do that by moping about. The ones that are left are rolling their sleeves up, and it’s their chance to shine so they have to go and try to do that. We’re going out on Saturday to try and get back on track.
“If they apply themselves that’s all we can ask. We weren’t happy with the performance last Saturday, like the fans, but at the same time there’s got to be a bit of reality about it.
“One result buys us another couple of weeks when we might have one or two back, and that’s what we’re aiming for on Saturday.”
