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ABERDEEN have suffered a blow ahead of their showdown against Maribor with the news Jonny Hayes is out of the crunch clash.

The Dons travel to Slovenia for the second leg of their Europa League third-round qualifying clash on Thursday night without the Republic of Ireland cap.

Hayes, who scored Aberdeen’s late equaliser against Maribor in last week’s first leg, is out with what is believed to be hamstring injury and the news will come as a blow to the Pittodrie side who are bidding to reach the playoff round for the first time under Derek McInnes.

He will have a scan on Thursday to discover the extent of the injury but he could be out for up to four weeks.

Their plans were already upset this morning when they were hit with more travel disruption on Wednesday morning.

The club’s flight to Slovenia was delayed by three hours, a blow that followed last month’s travel chaos for the trip to Latvia in the last round.