St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright insists he will not take a gamble on Tony Watt’s fitness against Hearts.
The former Celtic striker is a doubt for Saints’ Tynecastle trip after picking up a knock against his old side on Wednesday.
But Perth boss Wright does not want to risk throwing the 24-year-old into action against Craig Levein’s table-toppers if it means he could be forced into an early rejig.
“We’ll assess Tony again in 24 hours,” Wright told his club’s official website. “We only want to select him in the squad if he’s fit.
“The trouble is when you pick a player who is carrying a knock if he has to come off you are forced into a sub earlier than you’d like.”
Wright’s team have had a week to forget after being dismantled 5-1 by Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday before crashing out of the Betfred Cup to their Old Firm rivals in midweek.
But the Northern Irishman saw signs of encouragement from the narrow 1-0 loss to Brendan Rodgers’ team.
Now he is looking for a positive response from his squad in Gorgie.
He said: “The game has come around quickly after Wednesday so the boys have just been recovering and preparing for the match over the past few days.
“There were a lot of positives to take from the match against Celtic and I’ll be looking for a similar level of energy and hard work from the players. If we do that we can definitely cause Hearts problems.
“We always knew that this run of fixtures was going to be difficult. We started it well with a point against Aberdeen and possibly could have had more.
“After losing at Ibrox last week we want to bounce back and I believe that if we play well we can take all three points on Saturday.”
