Livingston hit by sickness bug ahead of Hibernian clash

Brian Rice revealed Livingston have been hit by a sickness outbreak and is hoping it does not wreak havoc with their preparations for Saturday’s cinch Premiership trip to Hibernian.

The Lions were unable to train on Tuesday because of a bug that first affected midfielder Jason Holt and caused him to miss Sunday’s Scottish Cup quarter-final defeat by Celtic.

Several other players have been laid low and, with Scott Pittman, James Penrice and Jack Hamilton also sidelined by injury, assistant manager Rice is unsure what shape the bottom-of-the-table Lions will be in for the Easter Road clash.

“We had to shut the club yesterday because there’s been a bug running through the club,” said Rice, who faced the media on Wednesday as manager David Martindale was in Switzerland for his UEFA Pro Licence.

“Holty missed out last weekend because of the bug and it’s spread. We’ve got four or five off today so it will just be a head count over the next couple of days to see who is available.

“Hopefully we can get two or three of them back, but at this moment in time I couldn’t tell you who is going to be available and who is not.”

Amid the gloom of being cut adrift at the foot of the table after winning only one of their last 21 league matches, Livingston have drawn some hope from the form of 23-year-old Australian striker Tete Yengi, who has scored five goals in 10 appearances since joining from Ipswich in January.

“We were creating chances before Tete came in, but we just weren’t taking them,” said Rice. “He’s come in and taken his chance.

“We thought he would be a bit-part player between now and the end of the season and it would be next season before we got him up to speed, but getting a couple of goals early on has helped his confidence.

“He’s been a godsend for us at this moment in time. He’s got a bit of everything. He’s big, he’s strong and he’s pretty quick so he’s an out-ball for us and he’s showed he can score goals. He’s given us something different that we didn’t really have and that’s helped us.

“You can see with his build that he’s never out the gym and he’s coachable. He wants to learn and he’s at an age where he is only going to get better.”