Inverness Caley Thistle head coach Billy Dodds not ruling more new signings in or out amid injury crisis in Highland capital
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Billy Dodds says he will continue to scour the free transfer market to see if he can bolster his vastly depleted Inverness Caledonian Thistle squad.
The injury tally in the Highland capital remains at nine after recent weeks, and Dodds moved to add to his options by bringing in former Newcastle United youth Ryan Barrett on a short-term ahead of the Scottish Cup tie against Stirling Albion.
More new arrivals could follow, then, with Dodds not ruling anything in or out while nearly a full team of players sit on the sidelines.
However, he is conscious that several signings could lead to a bloated squad when his injured stars do finally make their comebacks.
“In terms of free agents, we’re looking, but it doesn’t mean we will be bringing anyone in," he reasoned.
“We’ll also be looking come the January transfer window to see what we can do, but we’re not going to just go out and splash the cash.
"We have to pick carefully and make sure we get the right ones in, and we feel like we have the right one with Ryan Barrett.
"We can’t take two or three bodies in willy-nilly just for the numbers.
“We know if we can dig in now, win games and pick up points, we will have these important players coming back.
“We don’t want to fill our squad too much when we have these boys coming back, but it is nice to have a good, healthy squad to pick from.
“I feel as if I’m slowly, but surely getting that back with the additions of Danny Devine, Dan MacKay and with Ryan Barrett coming in as well.”
ICT, and every other club, will be forced to tweak training going forward.
New guidelines have come in preventing heading training the day before and after a match, and limiting it to once-a-week.
Clubs, players and coaches were all surveyed as part of the decision-making process, with the vast majority in favour of such changes, and Dodds has thrown his support behind the move as well.
“We’ve got to take it seriously," Dodds insisted.
"We’ve seen so many programmes on it with Alan Shearer and the like – there’s a bit of proof at play as well.
“We’ve got to take heed. It might mean a wee bit of adjustment where set piece work is done on the Thursday. It won’t make a huge difference on the Sunday because, generally, that’s a day off.
“If it means keeping people safe, I don’t think it is that major an adjustment.”
