Hamilton Accies will go in search of a second home win in succession against Hibernian tomorrow, without six first-team players.
Combative defender Hakeem Odoffin is set to miss out through suspension, joining Will Collar, Shaun Want, David Templeton, Lewis Smith and Marios Ogkmpoe all of whom remain injured on the sidelines.
But boss Brian Rice, buoyed from Accies first win at New Douglas Park this season, believes that opens up the perfect opportunity for other players to nail down a spot in the starting 11 - including fit-again midfielder Charlie Trafford, who returned to the squad for the first time in six weeks last weekend.
Rice said: “Unfortunately nobody else is back this week. That’s the situation we’re in at the moment, but it’s just the nature of football. Injuries occur, whether in matches or training.
“Hakeem is suspended and we lost Mario the other week, but David Moyo came in and did well.
“At this minute in time we’ve got David and Tunde Owolabi as our two main strikers.
“It is an opportunity for them because we obviously can’t get anyone in until the window opens, and we’re always looking to strengthen.
“The opportunity is there though for someone to cement their place and become the main striker or strikers depending on how we play.
“Whoever comes in for Hakeem knows they’ll need to put a shift in, they’ll need to work hard like Hakeem has been doing. He’s suspended for a reason, it’s because he’s put himself in a position to make tackles and headers and he puts his body on the line.
“Whoever comes in will need to replicate that.
“But if you look at the lads that are missing you’d say that they’re possibly all first team starters.
“Lewis Smith has been a massive loss, Marios is just back finding his feet. Shaun Want was skipper earlier in the season.
“These boys were all first-team players, but it opens the door for others. There’s no point in worrying or complaining about the players who are missing.
“We’ve only got to concentrate on the boys who are fit.”
Rice is expecting a tough challenge from Jack Ross’ side, who come into the game on the back of a 3-0 victory against Motherwell last weekend - with the gaffer warning his troops that they’ll need to improve further on last week’s showing against Kilmarnock to record back-to-back home victories.
He continued: “Hibs are probably the third best team in Scotland at the minute, I know the threat they possess and obviously I know the size of club that they are.
“If you look at the players they’ve brought in, Jack’s recruited very, very well. Paul McGinn got involved with Scotland, they’re pushing for Kevin Nisbet to be involved with Scotland and they’ve brought Jamie Murphy in.
“These are all quality players, Jack’s strengthened the squad.
“We know it’s going to be a massive test for us.
“But we’ve got to concentrate on ourselves. What are we doing well? How do we make it better? What are we not doing well, and how do we improve that?
“For us to get a result we’ll need to step up our performance once again.”
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