Pape Habib Gueye will 'come back stronger' from Aberdeen injury as Jimmy Thelin rallies support for stricken star

Jimmy Thelin knows Pape Habib Gueye is determined to come back even stronger and aid Aberdeen’s push for success in the second half of the season.

The big striker had been something of a revolution for the 100% Dons this season before a training ground injury curtailed him and means he will be out until the New Year. Thelin admitted it is important he and everybody at Cormack Park rallies around their top scorer and helps him get through this latest setback.

“If you belong to something or have friends outside the football world or family or in the football team,” the Swede claimed. “Everything is easy when it goes well. But the most important thing is how we support each other when it is tough times.

“It can be different. Sometimes it can be an injury or can happen outside football. That is when you have to show it is for real and how you support your team-mates as friends. There is usually a big smile on Pape’s face and a lot of energy. He is quite determined to come back even stronger.”

Aberdeen have won all 13 games under Thelin. They are the only team in Europe’s top leagues not to have lost a game. It has set the Dons up nicely for their top of the table trip to Celtic next Saturday. Thelin has been working with his squad, who aren’t away on international duty. He sees a real hunger in his team and that is really driving them on.

He explained: “You have to try to keep this hunger to always evolve, improve and do better things. You can never during a season think now we know everything.

“The trick is to stay focused on improvements and get better all the time. That’s not so easy as there are a lot of things going around a football club and an opponent also may change parts.

“So far so good. The way they train is for