Goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist is a surprise absentee from the Dundee United squad, with Deniz Mehmet stepping in for his first appearance in over a year.

Mark Connolly returns from injury at centre-back, with Mark Reynolds dropping to the bench.

Livingston boss Gary Holt sticks with the same line-up that defeated St Johnstone last weekend.

There's no place in the squad for new signing, former Arsenal striker Jay Emmanuel-Thomas, although he is part of the travelling party.

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St Mirren's resources are stretched to the point that Jim Goodwin has only listed four substitutes.

Is that a message to the board?

There are two changes to the visitors' starting line-up with Nathan Sheron and Jon Obika coming in for Ilkay Durmus and Sam Foley. Durmus is among the replacements but there's no sign of Foley.

Aberdeen are unchanged from Sunday's 3-0 win at Ross County and have the full complement of nine players on the bench.

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Livingston goalie Robby McCrorie and Hibs defender Ryan Porteous, both uncapped, and Dundee United striker Lawrence Shankland are the Scotland squad members getting an extra day to recover for the play-off semi-final with Israel.

Motherwell pair Stephen O'Donnell and Declan Gallagher will be fresher still.

You wouldn't put your house on any of those guys starting such an important game though, would you?

Scotland boss Steve Clarke will just need to keep his fingers crossed that his pool of players come through the weekend unscathed and raring to go at Hampden.

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Dundee Utd: Mehmet, Bolton, Edwards, Connolly, Robson, Chalmers, Butcher, Harkes, Sporle, Clark, Shankland.

Substitutes: Newman, Powers, Reynolds, McMullan, Pawlett, C Smith, Mochrie, Appere, Neilson.

Livingston: McCrorie, Devlin, Ambrose, Guthrie, Serrano, Bartley, Holt, Pittman, Forrest, Robinson, Tiffoney.

Substitutes: Stryjek, Taylor-Sinclair, Brown, Fitzwater, McMillan, Lawson, Sibbald, Lokotsch, Poplatnik.

Hibernian: Marciano, P McGinn, Porteous, Hanlon, Stevenson, Boyle, Gogic, Newell, Murphy, Doidge, Nisbet.

Substitutes: Barnes, Gray, McGregor, Doig, Hallberg, Mallan, Wright, Shanley, Gullan.

Hamilton Academical: Gourlay, Hodson, Odoffin, Want, McMann, Hamilton, Callachan, Martin, Collar, Templeton, Winter.

Substitutes: Scully, Stirling, Ogkmpoe, Trafford, Mimnaugh, Moyo, Munro, C Smith, Owolabi.

Aberdeen: Lewis, Hoban, Taylor, Considine, McGinn, McCrorie Ferguson, Wright, Hayes, Hedges, Watkins.

Substitutes: Cerny, Logan, Ojo, McGeouch, McLennan, Anderson, Hernandez, MacKenzie, Edmondson.

St Mirren: Alnwick, Fraser, Shaugnessy, McGrath, McCarthy, Erhahon, Sheron, MacPherson, Morias, Obika, Erwin.

Substitutes: Lyness, McAllister, Durmus, Jamieson.

The Europa League groups were drawn earlier today and Scotland representatives have some mouth-watering ties ahead.

Celtic, in pot one, will be up against Sparta Prague, AC Milan (somehow in pot three) and Lille, currently second in Ligue 1.

Rangers meet Benfica, one of the grand old names of European football, Standard Liege and Lech Poznan.

That's our Thursday night viewing sorted for a while.

There has been some movement in the Premiership today as deadline day looms nearer.

Striker Devante Cole is back at Motherwell and this time it's on a permanent basis. The 25-year-old scored four goals in 21 appearances on loan at Fir Park from Wigan before joining Doncaster in January.

Winger Jermaine Hylton has swapped Motherwell for Ross County, while the Dingwall side have released midfielder Josh Mullin.

Hamilton have added goalkeeper Ryan Scully on a deal until January.

There are rumblings about Kyle Magennis being close to a switch from St Mirren to Hibs and I'm sure Jack Ross and Jim Goodwin will have to field questions about that before kick-off.

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The match at Rugby Park was called off after six positive cases of Covid-19 in the home ranks.

The entire Kilmarnock squad has been advised to self-isolate for 14 days.

Motherwell say the "right course of action has been taken" and "wish those affected a speedy recovery".

The SPFL will now investigate "the circumstances leading to the postponement" and will not set a new date until that has been concluded.

Killie have two more games scheduled within the self-isolation period; League Cup group ties away to Falkirk and at home to Dunfermline, so what happens there? Will they be forfeited? Will the under-18s get a run out?

It's rare that we have Scottish Premiership action on a Friday, never mind three matches.

The full card was moved forward to help Scotland prepare for their Euro 2020 play-off semi-final next Thursday.

However, St Johnstone v Celtic and Rangers v Ross County have shifted to Sunday because of the Old Firm's Europa League commitments.

And then we had this afternoon's postponement of Kilmarnock v Motherwell, following a coronavirus outbreak at Rugby Park.

So, what do we have left in store?

Aberdeen v St Mirren

Dundee United v Livingston

Hibernian v Hamilton Academical

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