United blow as Scott Robertson to miss start of season

The influential Scotland internationalist limped off against Forfar on Saturday following an accidental collision with defender Jamie Bishop.

United had hoped the swelling on his ankle would go down quickly but even yesterday the 26-year-old was still in agony.

Robertson is definitely out of next week's Europa League tie against Slask Wroclaw and boss Peter Houston, who also has injury worries over Danny Swanson and Garry Kenneth, doesn't expect to have him back in time for the SPL kick-off against Kilmarnock on 24 July. He said: "Scott looks like he's going to be out for four to six weeks so he will probably miss the start of the season.

"His ankle is really swollen and it's a sore one. Scott is a fit boy and he works hard so he'll get back as soon as he's ready.

"It was unlucky, the Forfar player just collided with him. There's nothing you can do about these kind of injuries. But it doesn't help when you already have Garry Kenneth and Danny Swanson training with the physio. In fact, we only had 12 first-team players training today and some youngsters.

"So that shows how short on numbers we are."