Chris Lakey Cody McDonald's first tour of duty as a professional footballer looks set to end in disappointment.The young striker looks likely to miss out on the finale this afternoon, against Airdrie United, having seen just 17 minutes of action north of the border after his 20-minute cameo appearance at former club Dartford a week ago.

Chris Lakey

Cody McDonald's first tour of duty as a professional footballer looks set to end in disappointment.

The young striker looks likely to miss out on the finale this afternoon, against Airdrie United, having seen just 17 minutes of action north of the border after his 20-minute cameo appearance at former club Dartford a week ago.

A disappointed McDonald could only sit and watch his team-mates go through a light training session at St Andrews yesterday before the team moved their base on to Edinburgh in the afternoon.

McDonald started the 1-0 win over St Johnstone on Thursday but had to leave the pitch because of a knee problem.

“It's a frustrating time for Cody because he went on to the pitch yesterday feeling good and he got a knock on top of his old knock, so it has just put him back a bit,” said manager Bryan Gunn.

“(Physios) Simon Spencer and Steve Lilley are going to really have a good look at it and make an assessment when we get back to Norwich. We need to decide whether we push him through it and he might have to go through the pain barrier or whether we let him settle down for another week and then get him up to speed in the final two weeks of the season.

“It is a frustrating time for Cody and frustrating for us because we wanted to see him and see him develop during the pre-season training because he could be a real contender for a starting spot this season.”

With much of the team which faced St Johnstone likely to be given a rest, yesterday's training session was a clue to the team line-up - with young keeper Jed Steer, Adam Drury, Michael Nelson, Dario Dumic, Michael Spillane, David Stephens, Owain Tudur Jones, Matt Gill, Jamie Cureton all likely to start. Matty Pattison rejoined the squad yesterday after the birth of his daughter and could feature, although Simon Lappin may be given a sympathetic run-out in his home town.

It will be the last chance for Gunn to have a look at his trial players, although he has decided to end his interest in former Rangers player Chris Craig, leaving Paul McVeigh, Goran Maric, Michael Bridges and Jens Berthel Askou vying for attention.

“Of the lads that have come in Jens and Goran did particularly well,”

Gunn said. “Paul McVeigh we forget is a triallist as well because he is a familiar face around the place - he has done exceptionally well too.

“Michael is still with us and will feature tomorrow as well and we will obviously have to have a good think about our decision maybe after the game or during the course of the next week as well.

“We have decided not to take young Chris Craig. He showed some good skills, nice touches when he was here, but we feel that we have got other targets in mind that will help us out in a better way next season.”