Covid-stricken Dundee have been forced to travel to Pittodrie to face Aberdeen and boss James McPake is furious with the SPFL.
Their bench today is made up of two goalkeepers, 40-year old assistant manager Dave Mackay as well as a teenager without any first team experience.
A positive Covid test among the squad forced a further five players into isolation and Dundee had a request to have the game called off rejected by the the league's governing body.
McPake insists the decision to plough on with the fixture is "embarrassing for Scottish football" in an angry pre-match interview.
Speaking to BBC Sportsound, McPake said: “We’ve got a decent enough starting 11, a strong starting 11.
“Albeit for 20 months we’ve been putting players’ health and wellbeing, the country’s health and wellbeing at the forefront of all our minds.
“Taking precautions everywhere, like every household, like every country and everybody in the world at the minute.
“I’m astonished, if I’m honest. It’s not just player safety, this isn’t about the game, but if you want to talk about safety, forget Covid for a minute.
“Alex Jakubiak has been out for 12 weeks, he’s played 10 minutes of football. I’ve went against surgeons’ advice, physios and doctors’ advice, to even put him on the bench last week.
“He gave me 10 minutes against Hearts, he’s now deemed to be a fit player and starts today, I’m putting him at risk. Jordan Marshall has had one day’s training, wasn’t starting today, I’m putting him at risk.
“On the bench I’ve got a young lad who’s never played a minute of first team football, a 40-year-old who’s played almost 600 games.
“He’s doing us a turn because if we need another sub it’s either that or another goalkeeper.
“I was made aware of it at 8 o’clock this morning, the decision for us to play the game. We’ve been through the SFA, through the risk assessment.
“That then gets passed to the SPFL and I can speak about this because I’ve been through it with different players. It took almost two days to establish Liam Fontaine could play last season when Charlie Adam got Covid.
“It’s not sporting integrity, because we have a strong team and it’s happened to other teams. But it can’t just be black and white. There’s got to be consideration for people’s health.
“I’ve got a player there whose partner gave birth at 4 o’clock on Thursday morning. I’ve got three daughters who have been testing every week just so my mum, who is 79 and vulnerable, can come for Christmas dinner.
“For the SPFL to make a decision so rushed, to put us on two buses…
“Am I worried? Yes, why am I standing with a mask on? Normally I take them down for the interviews, I can’t today.
“We’ve put Aberdeen at risk all for the sake of playing a game of football. We’ve got five three midweeks, so have Aberdeen.
“Charlie Adam and Shaun Byrne were doing the warm-up saying they’ll play. Corey Panter hasn’t played a minute of league football, thrown into the deep end.
“But you can go over and over it, are we going to get anywhere? Absolutely not other than me getting myself in trouble for saying how incompetent and ridiculously poor this decision is.
“It’s putting the health of those players, the staff and everyone in the stadium at risk because we know we’ve got an outbreak.
“It’s embarrassing for Scottish football in my opinion.”
