Key St Mirren duo O'Hara & Ayunga ruled out for months

St Mirren have suffered a double injury blow after captain Mark O'Hara and Premier Sports Cup final hero Jonah Ayunga were both ruled out for at least two months.

Striker Ayunga - who scored twice against Celtic at Hampden - went off injured in Tuesday's defeat by Rangers, while O'Hara - who has not started a game since early November - has suffered a setback in training.

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With Keanu Baccus also out with a long-term injury, the Buddies are down to the bare bones.

"Jonah's had a scan, not good news," manager Stephen Robinson said. "Jonah's going to be at least a couple of months out with a tendon injury.

"Mark O'Hara, who obviously had a foot problem, he got a kick in in the last minute of the training session before Rangers and he's going to be out the same, probably two to three months with an ankle injury.

"Keanu Baccus is obviously a longer term, two to three months as well. So big blows for us in terms of the injury front.

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"Jonah was in good form as well, playing really, really well. But unfortunately, quite innocuous, he's pulled up in one of his runs at Ibrox and we had a scan very quickly. So unfortunately, when there's tendons involved in these injuries, you just can't take any chances or it ends up being surgery.

"Mark has got a couple of tears in his ankle ligaments from the incident in training as well.

"We try and make sure people step up and they've had their opportunities limited probably by the form of the people we're speaking about. So it's time for them to step up.

"They'll knock on my office door, they'll tell me they should be playing. So let's hope they do."

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Robinson is keen to make January signings to boost his depleted squad and says he will have to use academy players to make up the numbers against Motherwell on Saturday.

"We're very, very low on bodies, even just to fill the bench," the Northern Irishman said. "It could be a couple of 16-year-olds in the squad – good 16-year-olds, by the way, Luke Douglas and Jack Lavery.

"But we are actively looking. We're speaking to people in the positions we're speaking about, the forward positions and midfield. But that's proven rather difficult at the moment to get people in. But we'll continue to do that and see where we can take it."