Aberdeen 1 - 0 St Mirren

Aluko out of Buddies clash

Updated: September 18, 2009, 5:09 PM UK

The winger defied the club by joining up with the Nigeria Under-20 squad ahead of the forthcoming World Cup despite his club's concerns over an Achilles problem.

Defender Zander Diamond (foot) is the only other absentee for boss Mark McGhee

Aberdeen are hopeful that Aluko will avoid long-term damage to his career at Pittodrie by returning to Scotland to have his fitness assessed.

Although the club are under no obligation to release the 20-year-old for the tournament in Egypt, they were willing to do so if he proved his fitness.

McGhee had been angered that Aluko returned from a Nigerian training camp with an Achilles problem the previous week, and the Dons boss was not convinced by Aluko's performance from the bench during Monday's goalless draw at Falkirk.

The club confirmed on Friday that they were in contact with the Nigerian football authorities.

A spokesman said: "We have repeated to them that we need the player back to assess his fitness before we decide whether we will give him permission to take part in the Under-20 World Cup in Egypt.''

However, they were unclear whether the England Under-19 cap, who made his full debut for Nigeria in May soon after switching allegiance, had flown to Egypt for the tournament, which starts on September 24.

The Nigerian side's coach, Samson Siasia, insisted Aluko was focused on playing for his country.

"His club do not want him to travel for the tournament, but this a very focused young man, who cannot wait to represent his country in Egypt,'' Siasia told www.goal.com.

"He is now back with us and he wants to play for me.''

With McGhee sidelined by the issue, assistant Scott Leitch took training and spoke to the media to preview the visit of St Mirren.

Leitch downplayed suggestions Aluko had inflicted lasting damage on his relationship with the club.

He said: "We have not heard from Sone, so the only thing I can say is that sometimes these things are blown out of proportion.

"Until the manager sits down with Sone, there is no negative or positive in any of the circumstances.

Aberdeen may well miss Aluko's creativity against Saints after recording successive goalless draws and skipper Mark Kerr believes a more positive start is needed.

Kerr told RedTV: "Hopefully we get a better start than we did against Falkirk.

"We didn't put our stamp on the game early doors so hopefully we can do that on Saturday and go on from there.

"I think we can all improve, it's good having the clean sheets to build on.

"Personally, I have got to do better and everybody has to keep asking questions of themselves.''

St Mirren have no fresh injury problems ahead of the game.

Goalkeeper Chris Smith was this week given the all-clear to resume training after making a remarkable recovery from cruciate ligament surgery.

Smith was ruled out for up to a year back in March but could return to first-team duty as early as next month.

Gus MacPherson has urged his St Mirren players to treasure every one of their five Clydesdale Bank Premier League points, even at this early stage of the season.

Buddies boss MacPherson takes his side to Aberdeen looking to add to that tally, with the Paisley club having only failed to register points once this term.

MacPherson knows the finest of margins - two goals - spared St Mirren the drop last season and he is desperate to avoid their SPL fate going down to the wire again in May.

"We're delighted we've got five points on the board because you can already see with early games and early results how tight it's going to be,'' said MacPherson, who was upset with his side's performance in last weekend's 1-1 draw with St Johnstone.

"It's been a similar season to last season with how competitive it was; nobody's going to get detached - it's going to be a real battle for every point.

"I'm disappointed that we didn't win at home last week against St Johnstone.

"We were disappointed with the performance we had but it was another point on the board.

"That's vital, that you can put the points on the board, because there are teams who you feel that are always going to be round about you and they're teams you feel you've got to keep taking points from.

"We'll continue to try to pick up points but we'll also try to improve - and there's plenty of room for improvement.''