Gary Woods has every sympathy for injured team-mate Scott Fox - but that will not stop him trying to snatch the Ross County number one shirt for good.
On-loan Leyton Orient stopper Woods is set to take over in goal for the Staggies when they host Ladbrokes Premiership leaders Aberdeen on Friday night.
Fox was injured in the Dingwall side's Highland derby defeat to local rivals Inverness a fortnight ago and the ankle ligament damage he sustained is due to sideline the former Partick keeper for at least two months.
Woods, 25, is reluctant to look too gleeful now that he is set to get his chance but the former Manchester United youngster is determined to make the most of his chance.
He said: "I would never wish an injury on another player. It's just unfortunate what happened to Scott and I wish him a speedy recovery.
"But now it's a chance for me to get a run of games and hopefully keep the spot.
"We are never going to go the whole season without injuries but that is part of football. It's up to the guys coming in to take their opportunity and keep the others out the team because at the end of the day, everyone wants to play.
"There's only 11 shirts available so it's up to the gaffer to pick who he wants to play. Scott is now injured so hopefully I can keep the shirt for a long time."
County have been forced to agonise over their 2-1 defeat by Caley Thistle for a fortnight while the Premiership paused for the international break.
But while the rest of the Staggies were down in the dumps, top scorer Liam Boyce was part of the Northern Ireland squad which sparked wild celebrations by qualifying for Euro 2016.
The striker has already netted 11 times this season for his club side but Woods hopes the lure of playing at the finals in France next summer will drive him on to more.
"Liam's international break was fantastic after Northern Ireland qualified," said the keeper.
"He's going to come back raring to go to make sure he gets in that squad at the end of the season.
"We know what he's capable of - he's been on fire so far this season and hopefully that continues."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here