Kilmarnock goalkeeper Robby McCrorie sidelined for a month with facial injury

Kilmarnock goalkeeper Robby McCrorie faces about a month out as Derek McInnes manages an increasing injury list.

McCrorie suffered a facial injury in the opening moments of Kilmarnock’s Scottish Cup defeat by Celtic last week and McInnes has also lost Brad Lyons and Rory McKenzie ahead of Saturday’s trip to face Hearts.

“We’ve not got our troubles to seek,” he said. “Robby has fractured his cheekbone, which was what we thought. He’ll be out for probably the best part of three to four weeks. We will maybe get him in a mask.

“As a consequence of that, we have recalled Aidan Glavin from Elgin on an emergency loan with the intention of putting him back out to Elgin. I didn’t want to do that, but needs must at the minute.

“We can’t really afford to go and get another goalkeeper, and it doesn’t make any sense if Robbie’s going to be back involved, hopefully, in three or four weeks anyway.

“It’s bad news for Robby. Clearly it was obviously something we could have done without, but we’ll get Kieran (O’Hara) ready to come in and Aidan will be on the bench for us.

“Brad Lyons damaged his hamstring last week at Celtic Park as well. We had it scanned and he’ll miss Saturday’s game. Hopefully it’s not going to be too much longer than that, he may have a chance for Dundee next week.

“Rory McKenzie’s getting a scan on a stomach issue. It might be the onset of a hernia that he’s been trying to manage the last wee while and it’s got to the point now where it probably needs a wee bit of investigation. So we are without those lads.

“Matty Kennedy has upped his work, but this game is going to come to a quick for him, but hopefully we have him back full training next week. Kyle Magennis is back for this weekend.”

Winger Kennedy has been a long-term absentee with a back problem and McInnes will also be missing attackers Innes Cameron and Kyle Vassell along with defender Stuart Findlay until closer to the spring.

The injury list – and the recall of loan players Jack Burroughs and Oli Bainbridge – has meant that McInnes continues to look at the transfer market after Calvin Ramsay joined from Liverpool.

“Finances are tight and it’s not easy to to get things done,” he said. “If everybody’s fit, we probably wouldn’t be looking to do anything.

“We are trying to deal with a situation with quite a lot of key players out and unavailable. So I think it’s my job to continue to look. Whether we can get anything into the building remains to be seen.

“But it’s not all doom and gloom. We still can go and compete and you’ve got to cope with certain spells of the season when you’ve got a significant amount of injuries.

“If something comes up that we think can help us then we can have a conversation, but it is tough to to to bring people in.”