Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald has revealed that goalkeeper Tomas Cerny could be ruled out for as much as 6 weeks.

Cerny turned his ankle in the draw with Hamilton last weekend as he collected a cross, and a scan has shown that the Firhill number one may be set for a lengthy lay-off.

Archibald admits that the news comes as a huge blow, but he has challenged understudy Ryan Scully to seize his opportunity.

“He went for a scan the other day and it came back and he’s looking like four to six weeks,” he said.

“He’s still wearing a protective boot but the scan said four to six weeks and anything less than that is a bonus.

“It’s a massive blow as he’s brought a calmness to the back four, he’s had some good clean sheets and his overall performances have been fantastic.

“He’s settled in really well and has probably been our player of the season so far. I know it’s only been a quarter in but that’s the impact he’s made.

“It’s a sore one but it gives Ryan Scully a chance.”

The injury to Cerny is the latest setback for Thistle from the clash against Hamilton, with Archibald admitting that he was sorely disappointed not to take maximum points from the match.

He is remaining positive though that his side can get back to winning ways against Hearts at Firhill on Saturday.

He said: “It felt like a defeat because we knew that other teams had dropped points and it gave us the chance to get out of second bottom position as Motherwell had dropped a couple of points at Aberdeen.

“So the incentive was there for us but we didn’t do it. It was a double blow and felt like a defeat because of that.

“The fact we were one up with half an hour to go meant it was disappointing but we are on a decent run, we’ve got momentum, three games unbeaten and seven points out of nine.

“So we’ve got to try to continue that against Hearts, which will be tough as they’re going well again.

“But we’re at home and hopefully it’ll be a totally different match to what we faced at Tynecastle.

“The game at Tynecastle was probably one of our worst performances albeit they were good. We were a few players short for that game but we’ve a few back this time, nearly a full selection to pick from apart from Tomas Cerny and Christie Elliott, so hopefully that’ll help us have more impact in the game.

“I went and watched Hearts (against Celtic). It was a scrappy game but Robbie’s team had a great shape about them and the two big lads up front are a handful.

“They’ve got good players and he’s assembled a good squad.”