Michael Devlin Suffers Hamstring Injury

Derek McInnes has confirmed that Michael Devlin has picked up a hamstring injury in the bounce match against Ross County on Saturday, which will rule him out of the opening games of the season through August.

McInnes said:  “The one player who did pick up an injury on Saturday was Michael Devlin who pulled his hamstring 20 minutes into the game.

“He has never had any problems with that hamstring before.

“It is a blow for him and for us because he has done particularly well in the pre-season work. He hasn’t missed a day’s work, but he will miss the Rangers game. He will get a scan towards the end of the week and we will see the extent of the injury.

“We know that we need to play games, we know we need to play competitive football to get to where we need to get to but sometimes with that comes injuries. It is a fine balance at the minute. We want to make sure that we have as many players available as possible for that first game of the season but still do the work that we need to do.

“It looks likely that we won’t see Michael for the month of August, but we need to get the scan to confirm that.

“He is a positive big guy and he has been through the mill a few times with injuries in his career, so this isn’t anything new to him. At the same time, that ability to set goals and get back he has always been very good at doing that. Hopefully with whatever the scan shows he can get back a bit quicker. There is no doubt it is a blow. We have four centre backs in the building, and we are one down now. It just puts a wee bit of pressure on your training and we need to make sure that we are not exposing any of the other ones to any other injuries.

“We are cautious, but we still have to crack on with the work and make sure that the boys are ready for that first game.

“I always felt as a player, and it is the same as a manager, no matter how much work you give the boys during pre-season they are always a wee bit tired in that first game and you always have a wee bit of apprehension about their fitness. Hopefully that seven weeks of pre-season that they will have had before the Rangers game will provide them with the confidence to be ready.