CHRISTIE INJURY SCARE

The on-loan Hoops player, who agreed a £500,000 move in the summer, now looks set to miss Scotland Under-21s’ European qualifier against Ukraine on Friday after twisting his knee at Fir Park.

Caley Thistle assistant manager Brian Rice said: “He’s in a brace and he’s hobbling. It looked like a twist at the time. His knee just gave way. We will need to wait until it settles down to see the extent of the damage.

“I don’t think there’s any chance of him going with the Under-21s from what I’ve seen. It’s a huge blow for the kid and, of course, he is a massive player for us.”

Parkhead gaffer Ronny Deila can recall Christie during the January transfer window, but might prefer for him to stay at Thistle for continued first team game time.

Former Celtic skipper Stephen McManus was sent off as Mark McGhee’s side lost to John Hughes’ outfit.

Ex-Celt McGhee was far from happy with the performance of referee Craig Thompson, who awarded the visitors a penalty-kick when Danny Devine’s header hit the arm of McManus, who had his back to the ball.

The defender received a second yellow card in injury-time after catching Dani Lopez with an arm at a high ball.

McGhee said: “I thought the referee had a poor game, but the referee is our best referee. At some point he is going to have his worst game. We have our worst game sometimes and today I thought he had his.

“I came out of it still finding a lot of good in it. The result is obviously hugely disappointing, it’s not the result I expected or wanted. The game got away from us.

“You can argue all you like about the penalty, it hit his arm, but he’s not looking at the ball. I don’t know, maybe it is a penalty.”

On the red card, McGhee added: “I’ve just watched it. Mick’s put his arm across and has got him on his shoulder and used his body strength to get across the ball. He is watching the ball.”