St Mirren: Hamstring injury rules Charles Dunne out for eight weeks

St Mirren have been dealt another defensive injury blow after Charles Dunne was ruled out for eight weeks with a tendon problem.

Manager Stephen Robinson is already without wing-back Jaden Brown - who is being investigated by the club after he admitted three separate driving offences - and centre-half Alex Iacovitti, who has a long-term injury.

The Paisley club terminated Kevin van Veen's loan spell earlier this week after he appeared in court charged with domestic abuse, and wing-back Shaun Rooney left the club by mutual consent in October following an assault charge.

"We had a blow with Charles, we had him re-scanned and looked at and he's going to be out eight weeks with a tendon injury, which is a big, big blow to us obviously with losing defenders for numerous reasons," Robinson said.

"We're down to the bare bones in terms of centre-halves and obviously Jaden's still not available and we've lost the other two players as well.

"The defensive positions are a concern for us at the moment, but other than that, injury-wise people are coming back to fitness in the forward areas and midfield areas. We'll be very light in defensive numbers between now and Christmas."

There is also an injury doubt over midfielder Caolan Boyd-Munce before Saturdayâ€TMs trip to face Hibernian.

Robinson added: "It's probably been the most difficult period of my management career.

"It's things that they don't teach on the Pro Licence (course), I have to be honest with you. I think they need to rewrite the book on how to teach managers.

"You learn, you cope with it, you deal with it. The way I look at it is I deal with the people that I can deal with and Iâ€TMm in control of.

"We've got a fantastic bunch of boys here that are fighting and scrapping for each other.

"Bad luck can continue forever. So we don't believe in that, we believe in working hard and overturning that bad luck."