Saints sweat on Scougall scan
St Johnstone winger Stefan Scougall is set for a scan on his ankle after limping out of the midweek defeat to Motherwell.
Scougall was forced off the pitch with a combination of ankle and knee injuries, and will have it scanned on Thursday to assess the damage.
There is no time-frame on how long Scougall could be out for, but he will definitely miss the William Hill Scottish Cup trip to Tynecastle to face Hearts after manager Tommy Wright confirmed the news.
"The ankle is probably the biggest concern,'' Wright said. "I thought initially it would be the knee, but we will get a scan and get the results of that.
"Until we get the results we can't put a timeline on it or decide if anything needs doing.''
Tuesday's defeat at Fir Park was the latest in what has been a worrying slide for the Perth club, who have not picked up a league win since December 16 and are now just six points above the drop zone.
Wright is hopeful the change of competition can help turn the club's season around and provide welcome relief to his struggling players.
"We know we have to get better, whether it's in the cup or in the league, we have to start winning games.
"The fact the cup is win or bust in a one-off game hopefully will focus the minds and hopefully we will get a similar performance but not a similar result to last week (when they lost 1-0 at Hearts).''
He has called on the squad to remember their success in the competition in 2014, when they beat Celtic 2-0 to lift the cup, and Wright admits the competition remains an important one to the club.
He said: "They are professional footballers and should want to win every game, and realise the cup competition is the best opportunity for clubs like us.
"In recent years it's been great for Scottish footballer that smaller clubs have won the League Cup and Scottish Cup - Inverness and ourselves."
"It is an important competition, they all want glory so the younger players will know the importance of the cup game and hopefully the experienced ones will help them through."