Owen Beck learns Dundee injury timeline as key star returns to Liverpool for treatment

Dundee will have to get over the line in the hunt for top six without their key left-back.

Dundee have been rocked by the news that they will need to go into their final top six push without Owen Beck.

The on-loan Liverpool defender has been struggling with a groin problem and faces four to six weeks on the sidelines. Beck is to be sent for a scan and will return to his parent club for his rehabilitation, meaning he will miss the St Johnstone, Motherwell and Aberdeen games, along with Sunday’s cancelled Rangers game if it is rearranged before the split.

Dundee manager Tony Docherty confirmed: “Owen is looking at a minimum of four to six weeks on the sidelines. We have been monitoring and managing the situation with his groin and he’ll now go for a scan on it. With Liverpool being his parent club they will have a big input into that and, of course, he’ll get the best of treatment. He will go down there for that, certainly for this period because he’s their player and they want to look at it themselves.”

The good thing from Docherty’s point of view is that they have on-loan Burnley defender Owen Dodgson to step in. The left-back impressed in the win over Aberdeen last time out. The Dundee boss remained disappointed that the Rangers game went off because of a water-logged Dens Park pitch.

He said: “Obviously it was disappointing because we were really looking forward to it, we’d just beaten Aberdeen so we were in a good place. But it’s one of those things, you can’t do anything about and you just have to move on.

“The pitch was in good condition last Wednesday but the elements on Saturday into Sunday didn’t help. The game was called off and that’s it, so I’m only looking forward now.”