Motherwell missing 8 players for Rangers clash at Hampden

Motherwell are missing up to EIGHT first-team players for their trip to face Rangers at Hampden on Saturday.

Sam Nicholson is the most recently high-profile absentee with a patella injury, but Ross Callachan, Filip Stuperavic [both hamstring injuries], Shane Blaney and Lennon Miller with an impact injury are amongst the other walking wounded.

A tear to his medial ligament is likely to keep Blaney out for at least four weeks.

Kettlewell hopes to bring others in to bolster his squad, but admits he doesn’t have many resources left.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s game, Kettlewell said: “I think we’re sitting at eight just now. Some clubs can absorb that, for some clubs that wouldn’t have any kind of impact, but everyone who is injured just now seriously comes into my thought process of playing and getting serious minutes in our team and contributing.

“Without being disrespectful, we’re not talking about some of our teenagers or development players – these are bona-fide first-team players, so that puts a stress and a strain on selections.

“We would like to do a little bit more business, but to be fair we have done a fair amount of business to this point, so that’s difficult and it’s very much on a shoestring. We don’t have masses to work with.

“If we’re going to get another one or two in we’re going to have to be creative to do that, to ensure that in the meantime we have good quality on the pitch and a bit of support to that, a bit of depth to our squad.”

Kettlewell says he has looked into training to try and reduce the impact of injuries, but says many of them are unavoidable.

He said: “It’s not just Sam Nicholson, it’s fair to say. I think it has been well-enough documented now that we’re very hamstrung with the injuries that