Motherwell manager Mark McGhee has revealed that Scott McDonald was on the bench against Rangers last Saturday because a potential move to Australia left ‘his head all over the place.’

The explanation given after the match for the striker’s absence until just after the hour was that he was nursing a back injury, but McGhee confirmed yesterday that was not actually the case.

Having not trained properly with the rest of the squad who had prepared thoroughly all week for the Ibrox test, his manager felt unable to pitch him in from the start.

He is likely to return to the ‘Well starting eleven as they face Rangers at Fir Park on league duty tomorrow though, after seemingly deciding to remain in Scotland.

“Scotty was discussing the possibility of going back to Australia, but he seems to have settled on not going back,” McGhee said.

“This thing went on all week and his head was all over the place so what do you do? He didn’t know whether he was going to go or whether he wanted to take his family back there or if he didn’t.

“He never trained all week apart from being in the gym and was sat by the phone because he had to talk to people, so I just felt that we had prepared so thoroughly last week that he couldn’t start.

“Friday was the first time Scott had really trained with us, and by that time he had sort of got his head round that he probably wasn’t going to go.

“I discussed it with him and asked him if he felt alright to go on the bench and he said yes.”

Anyone watching McGhee’s post-match interview on Saturday might have been concerned for his well-being, such was the level of anguish visible through both his words and his body language.

And while a win over Rangers tomorrow would be welcome, he has still to fully come to terms with a nagging feeling over what might have been.

"I had us winning the cup this year,” he said. “I felt if we had got past that one and got the luck of the draw maybe we could've got to the cup final.

“I think our team is better than they've maybe shown this season and Saturday was a big opportunity for us to really kick on and finish the season strongly.

"Winning on Saturday won't make up for losing last Saturday. That disappointment will always be there. We're out the cup and you can't change that.

“Saturday's different, Saturday will be another hard game against a good team who have expectations of finishing second. They've beaten us three times this season, we've a lot to do to get anything out of the game.

“It's an important game for us to get three points and try and start that run I think we're capable of.”

If McGhee felt bad after the devastating loss, one can only imagine the depths of despair that veteran defender Stephen McManus plumbed to.

He holds himself personally responsible for the defeat after his late error led to the winning goal for Kenny Miller, but McGhee says he hasn’t let his teammates down.

“He’s always going to have made that mistake,” he said. “He tried to apologise to me yesterday but I told him he didn’t need to apologise, I’ve made more mistakes than he’ll ever make.

“We all make mistakes, sometimes they don’t cost you but unfortunately on Saturday it cost us. We move on, he’s been brilliant since he’s been here and he continues to do a great job, so there’s no issue there.”