ATHLETIC have suffered an injury blow after it was revealed that winger Dom Thomas faces knee surgery.

The 25-year-old, who was in attendance at New Douglas Park, was absent from the squad for Saturday’s defeat to Hamilton Academical with what manager John Hughes confirmed was a meniscus tear.

Thomas has been playing with it in recent weeks but the problem has now flared up, with a scan earlier this week showing the injury.

It is not known how long the winger will be absent for, with Hughes telling Press Sport this week that it “would be unfair” to put a timescale on it.

He commented: “He’s had a tear in it and, to be fair to Dom, he’s been playing on it.

“It’s flared up and we got it scanned the other day there, and the doctor said he agrees with the scan. I think he’s going in for a wee tidy up ASAP, hopefully in the next couple of days.

“He was missed on Saturday, you could see that.”

In better news, it was confirmed yesterday (Wednesday) that the club’s appeal against Graham Dorrans’ red card had been successful, freeing him to play against Queen of the South at East End this weekend.

The skipper was sent off for what referee David Munro deemed to be handball on the goalline, which also saw a penalty awarded that David Moyo netted for the game’s only goal.

However, video footage showed subsequently that the ball appeared to strike Dorrans on his chest, which led to Hughes accusing the official of “guessing” as Accies players claimed for a spot-kick.

“The referee says it’s a handball but, clearly, everybody sees it’s not a handball,” Hughes continued.

“We’ve all been there, we’ve all made mistakes. I think if the referee says it’s handball, he’s not seen it. I don’t even think it’s a free kick to tell you the truth.

“We’ve all been in those situations where all the Hamilton players are claiming for it; I think he’s taken a guess, it must’ve hit his hand. His linesman could’ve helped him out a little bit but there’s nothing you can do about it now. It’s done and dusted, it’s cost us the game, and we need to move on.

“If there was VAR on Saturday I think that would’ve been overturned.”

Having his captain available for the visit of ex-Pars boss Allan Johnston’s Queens will be a boost to Hughes, whose team dropped to ninth in the table and are only above their opponents this weekend on goals scored.

“We just need to keep working away,” he said.

“In terms of where we’re trying to get to, it’s fits and starts at the moment, one step forward, two steps back, and we can tick a box here. There’s still so many boxes that we need ticked, and one of them is that good performance away from home, and pick up the win.

“We’re constantly challenging the players to come up with the goods. In terms of effort and commitment, I said that after the game, it’s not in question, the commitment to try and do it right.

“We just need to be a little bit more ruthless in the way we go forward. We need to really have a real belief in ourselves that, when we’re at our best, we’re a right good team.

“Probably the word’s not ruthless, it probably is we have to have a belief in ourselves when we are at our best and do the right things, then we’re a right good team.

“It’s the process that will win us football matches. I still think we’re still working on that. They have to believe that every game that if they can produce the goods, we can win games.”

Hughes added that Iain Wilson and Reece Cole are also carrying injures but Rhys Breen could be available.