Ross County will play tomorrow despite sickness in team
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A WINTER-VOMITING bug that tore through Ross County’s squad on Wednesday and Thursday won’t force postponement of tomorrow’s trip to Livingston.
The Staggies had to cancel training yesterday and today after no fewer than 10 of their first team squad were struck down by the nasty Norovirus outbreak.
That left just eight fit players, including two goalkeepers, with four more players injured and nine reserves unavailable because loan deals.
But co-manager Steven Ferguson says the situation has eased overnight with several players showing good signs of recovery.
With another 24 hours until the game, he eased fears of the Dingwall club approaching the SPFL for postponement.
Ferguson, stressing County had never asked to be excused the trip, said: “There’s been a slight improvement and the game will go ahead. There’s no chance of it being called off.
“We have another 24 hours to the game. We’re still struggling, but we’ve never asked for the game to be called off. I’d like to make that clear.
“We just said we would monitor the situation. We knew, if it worsened, we would have a problem and we would have had to have another look at it.
“It hasn’t worsened, it’s got marginally better, although we’re still short and still have a good number of boys who are staying away from the football club today.
“That was what we expected. We were always preparing to play the game.”
With most of their development squad unavailable for first team action because of loans to other clubs, County could fill spaces on the team bus with 16 and 17 year-olds.
Ferguson said: “We will have some young kids involved, but they might not start the game. They will more likely be on the bench.
“The good thing is a lot of the players who were showing quite severe symptoms yesterday are better and we still have 24 hours.
“We’re still managing the situation, really, but there are no new cases today on top of the 10 we were dealing with yesterday.
“The medical staff deserve huge credit for quickly getting on top of the situation and nipping it in the bud.
“I’m hopeful we’ll be absolutely fine for the match, but obviously we’re going to have a lot of changes and we’re going to have to get a shape based on the players we’ve got.”
Midfielder Iain Vigurs, out with a foot problem since mid-September, could be rushed back into first team action early because of the illness outbreak.
Vigurs played a reserve game this week but is still not match fit. He is one of those who was off sick, but has improved greatly overnight, with Ferguson stressing: “Iain’s not really fit yet, but he’s coming back and if he’s feeling a bit better after the illness than somebody else, he’ll possibly come into our thoughts.”
Ferguson knows County’s energy levels and preparedness after missing two days’ build-up to the trip to Livingston could be lower than usual, but he added: “It is what it is. It is outwith our hands.
“We go into the game maximising what we’ve got. We’ll get this game played and then take it from there in what we do after the game.
“They may need that little bit of extra recovery time, given the week they’ve had.”
