St Mirren manager Jim Goodwin left sweating over injury to star man Jamie McGrath following Rangers defeat

St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin was left sweating over the injury to star performer Jamie McGrath after he was stretchered off during their 2-1 defeat to league leaders Rangers on Sunday.

The midfielder required lengthy treatment on the pitch during the closing minutes of the contest in Paisley and was eventually carried off with a suspected hip injury.

The Republic of Ireland international has been a shining light for the Buddies this season and was recently offered a club record contract offer to extend his deal beyond the summer.

Goodwin is praying the injury to McGrath is not as bad as it looked with the player leaving the pitch in real discomfort.

He said: “Jamie wouldn’t go down and would not go off on a stretcher if it wasn’t serious. He will go for a scan and we will say our prayers it’s nothing too serious.

“Initially he took a bang and we thought it was a dead leg or he was winded, but it was on his hip. He was struggling but we had made all our substitutions and we wanted him to try and get through it.

“But hindsight is a wonderful thing, I wish we had taken him off immediately, but I didn’t realise it was as serious as it was.

“He tried to overstretch to get on the end of a diagonal from Connor Ronan and something has gone.

“He’s a big player for us so hopefully it’s nothing too serious.”

The defeat to Rangers ended a run of three straight Premiership victories for St Mirren and a deflated Goodwin felt his side merited something from the game.

A wonder strike from Connor Ronan has given Saints a stunning fourth minute lead only for two goals in the space of a minute from Kemar Roofe, on his 50^th appearance and Alfredo Morelos, who clinched his 100^th Gers goal, to turn the game in their favour.

Goodwin admitted: “I’m really disappointed not to have anything to show for a very good performance.

“We started brilliantly, the boys stuck to the game plan in terms of the aggressive press at the top end of the pitch and not allowing Rangers to get any rhythm in their game.

“Rangers like to build from the back but we were forcing them into turning over cheap possession.

“We got a deserved goal. We said before the game that with the wind at their back they should try and work the goalkeeper.

“Rangers weren’t causing us problems but after half an hour they got their foot on the ball and dominated possession more than we would have liked.

“What disappointed me was the manner of the goals we conceded. If you play Rangers or Celtic and they cut you open with fantastic free-flowing football you hold your hands up.

“But they were too really poor goals. I though the game was going perfectly up until the silly penalty we gave away.

“The second goal straight after is the real killer blow. We needed to manage the game and get to half-time level pegging.”