Motherwell boss Graham Alexander happy with the firepower at his disposal

Graham Alexander is happy with the firepower at his disposal as Motherwell prepare to start their European campaign amid the likely absence of talismanic striker Kevin van Veen.

The Dutchman and former Hibernian defender Paul McGinn missed Saturday’s 1-0 friendly win over Partick Thistle with knocks and had not returned to training before Alexander met the media on Wednesday morning.

Although both will be assessed before Sligo Rovers visit Fir Park on Thursday in the first leg of the Europa Conference League second qualifying round, Alexander admitted it would be a “bonus” if they made the game.

Van Veen was a key player for Motherwell last season, especially after Tony Watt left for Dundee United in January, and Alexander has since allowed attackers Kaiyne Woolery, Jordan Roberts and Justin Amaluzor to move on.

“We have lost a couple of players but, not being disrespectful, we were comfortable with certain players moving on, because we felt we needed to trim the squad and redefine it a little bit,” he said.

“We have only brought three players in so far – Paul McGinn, Blair Spittal and Josh Morris – but these are proven performers.

“Blair Spittal and Josh Morris are proven attacking midfielders who can score goals. Josh has scored goals in the previous two times that I managed him and Blair Spittal had a good goalscoring season last season.

“It’s not a case of replacing like for like, different players and different attributes, but certainly proven goalscorers.

“We feel we have other players in the squad, people like Connor Shields, Joe Efford, Ross Tierney, Callum Slattery, Sean Goss, where we expect them to improve on their goalscoring from last season, and they have the ability to do that. So we have to give them the