Elgin City prepare for William Hill League 2 trip to Forfar Athletic with none of their injured players expected back in January, manager Allan Hale reveals

Elgin City’s injury list is unlikely to shorten in January, says manager Allan Hale.

Ahead of today’s League 2 trip to Forfar Athletic - managed by ex-City boss Jim Weir - the Black and Whites have no fresh news to report on player availability.

Hale this week extended the loans of Kilmarnock duo Aidan Glavin and Kian Leslie until the end of the season.

He is currently without defenders Matthew Cooper, Ross Draper, Jake Dolzanski and Jack Murray, and midfield duo Rory MacEwan and Ryan MacLeman.

Number one keeper Tom McHale has been on bench duty on the road back from a serious ankle injury and his deputy Olly Kelly has been out injured for the whole campaign.

The City boss recalled Fin Allen from a loan spell at Highland League Huntly.

“Fin’s come back and that's obviously with the injury situation that we have at the moment and the fact that the injuries are pretty medium to long term,” he said.

“The fact that Ryan McLeman’s had a few setbacks with his injury, it just was one that made sense. The option was there and the intention had always been to review it in January with a view to recalling him and that's what we've decided to do.

“It's up to Fin now really, he's got clear ability and hopefully between now and the end of the season he can go and showcase that.

“There probably won’t be any of our injured players back until I would say the end of January, start of February really. That's when we'll have a better indication on how far people are away.

“It's frustrating but it is what it is so we've just got to kind of deal with it, which we have been.”

Hale is keen to bring in more loan deals if possible but added: “I wouldn't say anything's imminent within the next week or two, the squad will be the same probably till the end of the month, I would think.”

City’s trip to Forfar today is likely to be on, with the Angus side playing on a 4G pitch.

Hale is eager to get his team in action again, with last week’s home clash against Spartans called off and the big cup game against Aberdeen just a week away.

“You don't want to go through two or three weeks without playing and especially you don't want your momentum to be broken up either.

“I guess what it’s allowed is an extra week for the players to recover but there's no players going to be back by this weekend so it's just they'll get one more game into them.

“We expect a difficult game. We know all about Forfar and their strengths and what they possess it'll be difficult but it's a game that we're looking forward to.”

The weather not only cost Elgin their Saturday fixture last week but also training facilities.

Hale added: “It's just trying to keep the players ticking over and the good thing is the gyms are still open and there's sessions you can give them to do to try and replicate some of the work you would do on the pitch.

“It just means from a tactical point of view you're not able to really get on and refine the work that you need to keep working on but I'm sure we're not the only team that's disrupted by it.

“It's just this time of the year and unfortunately where we're located there's not a high volume of facilities that are available that are open to get everyone together and you've got travel conditions that are thrown into the mix which are not ideal.

“The players are pretty professional, they're in the gym every day anyway and the fitness won't be affected too much by having a few days off the grass if you like.”

City will be up against former boss Weir and another ex-manager in Gavin Price, who is Weir’s assistant at Forfar - but Hale doesn’t see that adding any spice to today’s game.

“That's not really something that we pay attention to as a staff - it's football isn't it?

“You see it happen all over with managers leaving and then coming up against the old clubs, it's just part of the game.

“They left on good terms, both Jim and Gav in their own right, done really well for Elgin and were thought highly of and rightly so. They both did good jobs in their time at the football club and took the club on a positive trajectory.

“I'm sure the fans and everyone appreciates what they've done for Elgin and there's no bad blood there at the end of the day.

“They're now at Forfar and their focus will be on trying to get three points for Forfar and our focus is on trying to get three points for Elgin so they're professional guys, they're good guys, they're experienced guys and I'm sure the game won't really affect them too much either.”