STEVEN MacLean has jetted out to Lithuania with the rest of his St Johnstone team-mates – but may only be there to cheer on their attempt at a Europa League fightback.
The striker was among a 23-man squad that took off from Edinburgh Airport ahead of tonight’s second-leg clash with FK Trakai.
Saints trail 2-1 following last week’s McDiarmid Park defeat in the first leg of the first qualifying round but hope to turn things around on the LFF Stadium’s artificial surface.
A long-standing knee complaint usually prohibits MacLean from playing on plastic but the veteran frontman has volunteered to lead the Perth side’s rescue mission.
Manager Tommy Wright has already said he will only risk his main man if he gets the backing of club doctors but was unwilling to confirm if he had received the news he was looking for before boarding the flight to Vilnius. “Steven is travelling,” said Wright. “But I’m not going to disclose my team now.
“We’ve got 23 in the party and that’s the number of spaces we had left. With the injuries we’ve had I didn’t see much point leaving him behind.
“He is on the plane but we will have to wait and see if he is there as a player or a supporter.”
St Johnstone were out-classed by Trakai last week but Wright reckons playing away from the Fair City will boost their chances.
His counter-attacking team are built for playing away from home and have racked up a number of impressive results abroad in recent seasons.
Wright confirmed that defenders Steven Anderson (knock), Brian Easton (calf) and Keith Watson (knee) have all missed the trip to the Lithuanian lake resort.
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