Trio to return for Inverness Caley Thistle against Dundee at Dens Park

Boss Billy Dodds expects to have a stronger squad at his disposal for Inverness Caledonian Thistle’s trip to Dundee tomorrow as he welcomes players back from injury.

Although there are long-term absentees like Shane Sutherland and Tom Walsh, a handful of other players have missed several games already this season through knocks.

Dodds, though, has revealed Aaron Doran, Austin Samuels and Max Ram have all trained with the first team squad this week, and are in contention to make the journey to Dens Park.

Doran has not played since the defeat at Partick Thistle a month ago, while Samuels went off the following week against Morton.

Defender Ram, however, barely saw his Inverness career get started after his move in the summer before being forced on to the sidelines as the 21-year-old managed just 14 minutes of the opening Premier Sports Cup group game against Kelty Hearts.

Now, Dodds hopes the trio’s return will encourage other members of the Caley Thistle squad to raise their standards to hold on to their spots in the team with more competition for places.

“It hasn’t been ideal, but I don’t like making excuses,” Dodds said.

“I have been down to the bare bones, but the ones that have been in the squad have done well to dig in.

“Sometimes we’ve had a young boy and a few senior pros on the bench, but we won with that against Raith Rovers which was great.

“It doesn’t make it easy, so I’m glad to have the boys back. I would rather have a full squad any day of the week.

“Austin has come on leaps and bounds and we’ve got him back a bit quicker than we might have thought. For Max, who came up here and got injured in one of his first games, you can see the spring in his step. Aaron was a big loss as well even though he wasn’t out as long.

“When you get bodies back it gives you so many more options. You can see in training that people realise they might lose their place.”

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