Kilmarnock's Kyle Lafferty to miss Motherwell clash

| 30 April 2021

Kilmarnock's Kyle Lafferty to miss Motherwell clash

Kyle Lafferty missed Monday's Scottish Cup shoot-out defeat by St Mirren with a foot injury and Nicke Kabamba is out for the season

Kilmarnock will be without strikers Kyle Lafferty and Nicke Kabamba for their trip to Motherwell but the Northern Ireland international will be back for the final two Scottish Premiership games.

Lafferty missed Monday's Scottish Cup shoot-out defeat by St Mirren with a foot injury and Kabamba is out for the season after suffering a hamstring injury in extra time.

But Lafferty will be back to face the Paisley side on May 12 and Tommy Wright is confident he still has plenty of goals in his team ahead of Saturday's Fir Park clash.

"He will be fit for St Mirren, which is a positive for us," the Killie boss said. "Nicke is out for the season, we knew that pretty much at the time, it's a grade-two hamstring."

Lafferty struck 11 goals in six matches before his injury but the team in general have been hitting the net regularly since finding their feet under Wright, with 19 goals in six games.

On his alternative strikers, Wright said: "George Oakley was excellent the other night, really good.

"Unfortunate with two chances, with one he hits the side netting and one just goes over the bar, maybe the goalkeeper got a touch. Linked the play up well, worked hard, set up a goal. So he has done well.

"Danny Whitehall is chomping at the bit.

"The good news this week is that Kyle will definitely be fit for the last two.

"You could see Kyle has been that final piece in the jigsaw for us in terms of the team, but the rest of the pieces have stepped up to the mark and not only provided the chances for Kyle, they have taken chances.

"We have had other people chipping in with goals on a regular basis."

Chris Burke netted in a 4-1 win over Motherwell last month and the winger has been instrumental in creating a glut of chances during Wright's short tenure so far.

"From my point of view as an attacking player, I enjoy it," Burke said. "I think it's an exciting team to watch and I certainly enjoy playing the style of play Tommy Wright plays.

"We probably put a lot of pressure on the goalkeeper and defensive line and defensive midfielders when the goals weren't going in. We can relieve that little bit of pressure when we score goals. We can play a different style when we go a goal up and it helps the whole team.

"That's something the manager has instilled in us. What I like about it is there's not just one player scoring goals, there's numerous players and even the players that come off the bench."