Tentative steps back for Muirhead and Grant

The Falkirk boss has Aaron Muirhead out and Peter Grant in the very early stages of his recovery from a cruciate knee ligament injury and operation.

Further up the field there’s good news and some less so, but nothing that should be of immediate concern to the Bairns ahead of a trip to St Mirren on Saturday.

Houston explained: “Aaron Muirhead had his operation to tidy up his cartilage at the start of last week. He’s back starting rehab right away.

“He’s been in at Ross Hall in Glasgow and he’s back working now and his swelling has eased. He’ll be out four to six weeks but we’re confident he’ll be playing by then.

“He will try to get back quicker because he won’t like the fact he’s out the team and the team is winning.

“It’ll be good to have them both ( Muirhead and Peter Grant) back because we’re a bit thin defensively.”

Peter Grant will return to football action on Tuesday night in an under-20s away match at Hamilton.

Deniz Mehmet has also missed games recently with a dead leg but returned to the bench on Saturday for the 2-0 win over Ayr and will be back to replace Danny Rogers in the Irn-Bru Cup when the on-loan Aberdeen keeper heads off on international duty with the Republic of Ireland senior squad.

But Houston added: “ Nathan Austin has come back from injury and James Craigen is back on his feet again. James may well be available this weekend, he’s feeling better.

“Kerrzo came off with a groin strain on Saturday and Bairdy

took a kick during the game. I don’t think it’s anything to stop them playing.

“The guys who are out need to bide their time but it’s difficult for me to change much of it. They were disappointed with the performance, as I was, but we have to rise above that and remember what they’ve achieved over the last five games.”