RUAIDHRI Higgins provided a squad update as the Bannsiders make the journey to Portadown this afternoon…

Coleraine have been without several bodies in recent weeks due to knocks and Higgins gave an outline as to when we can expect certain players to return to the fold.

Higgins provided the unfortunate news that Jamie McGonigle has suffered a tear in the quad area and is expected to be out of action for two to three months.

Those setbacks have provided opportunities for others and Higgins singled out Cameron Stewart and Ronan Doherty for their attitude after not featuring as much as they would’ve liked in recent weeks.

“Charles Dunne is probably out for the medium-term, possibly, we’ll see,” he added.

“I can’t give an exact answer. Obviously, Ryan Schofield and Graham Kelly are out long-term…but Connor Murray has started some late jogging and stuff like that.

“Obviously, we want everyone to be fit, of course we do, but we’ve also got real talent.

“Regardless of who’s fit and available, no matter who we play, we’ll have a good enough team on the pitch to try and win games.

“I spoke about Cameron after the Crusaders game and I think he’s a brilliant example.

“He’s a really, really good example of someone who dug deep, someone who possibly felt that his future might be elsewhere, but he grabbed the bull by the horns.

“He came in and trained brilliantly in pre-season and did brilliantly. I’m repeating myself, what I said after the game, but he deserves this opportunity and he’s taken it.

“Then you look at the likes of Ronan Doherty…who’s found himself out of the team in recent weeks, who’s been used to playing every single week for the last number of years, but he comes in every day and shows a brilliant attitude.

“He’s an integral part of the group, so there’s loads of really good examples of people conducting themselves in the right way.

“I know more than anyone that it can be really, really frustrating when you’re not playing, but very few players don’t go through it in their careers.

“The team will evolve and develop as we go and we’re still very early in the season.”

Portadown lost out at Linfield last weekend but Higgins remarked how Niall Currie’s men were impressive – especially in the opening 45 minutes – despite coming out on the losing side.

“We are expecting a very tough game,” he said.

“I know Niall’s done a brilliant job there with his staff and players.

“If you look at their first half performance vs Linfield, they probably shaded it to be honest with you, in terms of who the better team was in the first half.

“Obviously, they were unfortunate with one or two decisions so we know that we’re in for a real, real tough game.”

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