Luckless Peter Pawlett 'close to tears' after Dundee Utd player suffers fresh injury blow against Rangers

Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin admits a tearful Peter Pawlett’s injury is something his side could do without as they seek inspiration in the fight to avoid relegation.

Dundee Utd's Peter Pawlett aggravated his hamstring injury in the defeat by Rangers.

The Tannadice side have now not won in 11 league games and did not look like ending that run against Rangers at Ibrox as they fell 2-0 to a Malik Tillman double. Goodwin's side remain bottom of the table and are now six points from the safety of 10th spot after Kilmarnock’s win over Hearts. Pawlett, who has only just returned from a hamstring injury, collapsed to the Ibrox turf after 20 minutes. He was visibly distressed and was replaced after treatment by Kai Fotheringham. He is understood to have aggravated the same hamstring problem.

“Look, we have not carried a great deal of luck,” said Goodwin. “I don’t particularly like talking about injuries, people assume you are making excuses. We have got a lot of key players out injured. (Dylan) Levitt is one, Liam Smith, Charlie Mulgrew and Glenn Middleton and now you can add Pawlett into that group of players needing rehab. It is a very difficult challenge for us missing so many influential players. We have a tight group, a very small group to work with. We have a number of younger players included as we just try and bulk up the squad. We have to try and hurry those ones along because we are running out of time it’s as simple as that.”

"(It is) Very unfortunate for Pete because he has just been out for a period of time with an injury and worked hard to get himself fit. And unfortunately it looks as if it a recurrence of that same injury. The wee man is gutted. I have not had a chance to see him after the game. He is very down as you can imagine. He looked close to tears when he came off because of how hard he has worked to get back fit. I emphasised the point to him when I came in what an important player he is to the team and how big a part he is going to play before the end of the season. He adds goals and he has a creative spark that you need, albeit we did not see much of it today. In recent games he has added that bit of quality. To lose him is disappointing but right now it is too early to say in terms of duration.”