St Johnstone: Contrasting news for Drey Wright and Zach Mitchell

The Courier

26-04-2025

Drey Wright's season is over, St Johnstone boss Simo Valakari has confirmed.
But the Perth club's Mr Versatile, who sustained ankle ligament damage earlier this month, has already done his part in the Premiership survival battle.
And Valakari believes the Englishman's example is one his team-mates need to follow if they are to complete the job of preserving their top-flight status without him.
'Drey is walking without the boot,' Valakari reported.
'He had an MRI scan yesterday, which will show the full damage (to the ankle he injured in the league victory over Celtic).
'We'll get those results soon, but he is definitely out for the season.
'Without him, we wouldn't even be in this position.
'He has been so versatile to fill these gaps everywhere.
'In every position he has done well for us, and he has played a lot of minutes.
'We will need other players to have Drey's attitude over the next five games.
'Every time I took him into my office and said: 'Look Drey, you had a really good game on Saturday but this time I need you somewhere else' he was like: 'Don't worry gaffer, I will do it'.
'That's the kind of mentality we need because we are short in some positions.'
Valakari is still holding out hope for a swift Zach Mitchell comeback from the hamstring injury he picked up against Dundee United.
'Zach took a little part in the first bit of training today,' he said.
'He can do runs, stop and start movements, things like that. He's progressing.
'We'll take it day by day. The last hurdle – starting to sprint is, of course, the most difficult.'
Valakari wants to see a change of mindset for the post-split run-in.
Starting with Motherwell on Saturday, a mental 'handbrake' needs to be released.
'This a clean sheet of paper,' he said.
'We've been talking since Christmas about the position we can get ourselves into for this stage and now we are here.
'All the talking is done. These five games will determine our season.
'As a coach, you try to feel who is going which way with their performances, but it is very simple for me and my players.
'We can't play it safe and worry about making mistakes or what will be the consequences of going down.
'If you do that, we are down already. We can't have doubts.
'Focus on positive outcomes and they are more likely to happen for you.
'The handbrake is off.
'We can't have any regrets when we get to the end of these five games. We need to see opportunities.
'That has to be my mindset, my coaches' mindset and my players' mindset.
'If we go down, we have to make sure we have tried everything to be positive. We don't have any egos. If we can express ourselves in our best way, we have a chance.
'If we are frightened of making mistakes the mistakes will come.'
Fran Franczak is now available to Valakari again having completed a full week of training.