Inverness were faced with a nightmare scenario last week following their Championship final-day defeat to Ayr United.
The loss at the Caledonian Stadium meant that the Scottish Cup finalists would go a month without a game of competitive football before they take on Celtic at the national stadium after missing out on the play-offs.
Billy Dodds' men will face off with the treble-chasing Hoops at Hampden on Saturday, June 3.
But they won't have played any competitive football in that time.
And even in the meantime, Caley Thistle are finding it tough to organise warm-up games ahead of the showpiece event, according to the Daily Mail.
Chief executive Scot Gardiner said: "It's a real challenge for us to get meaningful games. Right now it's proving a very difficult challenge indeed.
"We could not do anything to prepare until we knew our play-off fate on Friday night.
"We gave our boys a few days off after the disappointment because they had gone seven games undefeated up until the Ayr setback. 'The plan then was to get straight back into preparing for the cup final.
"But we are now in a scenario where they will return to training with no games scheduled as yet. And it's a real challenge to get them at this stage of the season.
"Even in England there is such an intense programme of games, particularly with the Premier League, and it's the worst time of year to try to get a game that is going to give us the physical and mental challenge the players need.
"We are going into a game against the Premiership champions, who are a terrific team, so it's not ideal.
"We knew that would be the case if we didn't reach the play-offs. We will get something, but it's extremely challenging."
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