Injury worries mount for Queen of the South ahead of League One opener

Queen of the South’s injury worries are piling up ahead of the start of the new league season.

Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Airdrie spelled the end of their hopes of progressing from the group stages of the Premier Sports Cup.

But of more concern to boss Peter Murphy was the loss of Reece Lyon and Harry Cochrane in the first half.

With Benji Luissint, Leighton McIntosh and Kyle Doherty also absent from the trip to Lanarkshire, the new Palmerston gaffer could have a selection headache ahead of Saturday’s trip to Alloa for the League One opener.

He said: “We have had a few impact and muscular injuries. Harry had a hamstring injury coming into the game and we hoped he would get through it but unfortunately, he has felt it again.

“Reece took a bad knock to his Achilles in the last game and felt his hamstring and it was just fatigue with the games we’ve played, starting with our first game against Aberdeen which was physically demanding.

“We had already made changes and we had to take Matty Douglas off because he looked like he had picked up an injury. He is a warrior and wanted to play on, but we couldn’t afford to lose any more bodies, so we took him off to protect him.

“I hate going on about it because that is a negative, but the league cup has panned out the way I was wary about with the injuries. We just wanted these games over and done with so that we can look at the league. The cup games come far too quickly in the early season and kills the teams from League One and League Two and really take their toll.

“We had a lot of injuries at my previous side too and we ended up starting the season missing players and it has happened again, so I’m glad these games are out of the way.”

Queens needed to beat the Championship side to