Saints skipper Thompson contested a high ball with Gaston in the 69th minute of Friday night’s fiery Renfrewshire derby.

The Ton keeper was on the receiving end of a nasty, straight-legged challenge and was forced off injured shortly afterwards with a dead leg and cuts to his right thigh.

Gaston was unable to train yesterday and confirmed he would not be between the sticks against the Doonhamers this evening.

He refused to have a go at the St Mirren striker, however, stating that he was unsure if Thompson had actually gone in with malicious intent.

The 28-year-old told the Tele: “I’ve got a dead leg and big bruise on my right leg just now. It was swollen, but that’s gone down.

“It’s getting better, but I won’t be playing tonight. I haven’t been able to train and still can’t jog on it. I’m hopeful for Saturday but definitely won’t be involved against Queen of the South.” Gaston added: “He [Thompson] went up with his leg straight out in front of him and he’s connected with a flat foot at the top of my thigh, leaving two cuts from four stud marks.

“You don’t like to think that anybody would do that intentionally, so whether he’s put his leg up to protect himself thinking I’m coming out and he’s maybe going to get hurt, I’m not sure.

“Only he would be able to say whether he meant it or not.

“Do I think it should have been a red card? I’m not sure. It depends on how you see it, whether he’s gone up to protect himself, like keepers sometimes do with their studs showing and their legs up. If it happens in another place on the pitch it’s maybe more serious, but with the way it was people might say the ball was there to be won.

“So I don’t know. But it should have been a booking anyway, it definitely merited something.

“But I don’t expect any retrospective action. It probably wouldn’t be clear enough.

“At the time, I wasn’t really sure what happened: if he caught me with his knee or something. I had my eyes on the ball so don’t know if he caught me by accident or was trying to get out my way.

“He came over after and said he caught me and to see if I was okay. Maybe he thought he was going to be in a bit or trouble or maybe he felt a wee bit bad about it.

“I’m not really one to get worked up anyway. I was more worried about trying to make sure I would be okay to stay on the pitch.

“I was hoping it would ease off, but as soon as I took the free-kick I could feel it getting tighter and tighter, and knew if I stayed on I could cost the team points. As soon as I sat down it seized up.

“I didn’t have the greatest of games on Friday night and once you get an injury and the other goalkeeper gets a chance, you never know what could happen then.

“I could be out the team for this game, and if I don’t make Saturday, all of a sudden Grant [Adam] could give the manager a dilemma. It’s never ideal to be out the team. But I don’t hold any grudges. These things happen, especially with the importance of the game. It was a derby match and they’d just had a player sent off and I’d imagine he was a bit frustrated.

“At the end of the day, he could be on the receiving end of a tackle next week; these things just happen in football.” Despite not being fit enough for a place on the bench, Gaston still intends to make the journey to Dumfries to back his team-mates in this evening’s cup clash against James Fowler’s men.

He said: “I’m going to go down and support the team and hopefully we can put in a performance and get through to the next round.

“It’s not forced upon us — with the away games they might even prefer you stayed at home, rested and iced than sitting on a bus, but I’d rather come down and see the team.”