Motherwell players might need a month before they are ready to play again after watching their captain, Phil O’Donnell, die in front of them on Saturday. Stephen Craigan, the Fir Park defender, said yesterday that the players cannot contemplate a return to action as they struggle to come to terms with the tragedy.

Mark McGhee, the Motherwell manager, may have to consult grief counsellors to help his players to overcome the images that will be with them for years. O’Donnell, 35, collapsed while being substituted in the Premier League game against Dundee United at Fir Park on Saturday and was rushed to Wishaw General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

His nephew, David Clarkson, the Motherwell striker, left the game immediately and ran out of the ground to follow the ambulance taking O’Donnell to hospital.

“We’re looking for some inspiration, direction and we trust the manager to know what’s best,” Craigan told BBC Radio Scotland. Motherwell’s match against Hibernian on Wednesday has been cancelled.

“We don’t know if it will take a week, a month, or a day. We’ve never been in this situation before. We have a Scottish Cup tie with Hearts on January 12. I don’t know about that either. It’s a very testing time for Mark McGhee. He’s the figurehead of the club and we will follow what he does and I think we have a very good leader in the camp.”

Craigan added that the Motherwell squad visited Fir Park on Sunday to pay their respects. “We went in and we sat and had a chat,” he said. “It was a strange feeling and a strange atmosphere. We don’t know what we are going to do. The next two games have been called off, which mean absolutely nothing to us just now. If someone had said we had to play, we probably just wouldn’t have turned up.” McGhee said his team were deeply upset. “It has been well-documented how few players we have used this season and that is something that brings them together. Phil was a figurehead to them; he was not just any player, he was the focal point of the squad, the senior member of the squad.

“For any of us to contemplate going on a training ground, never mind a football ground, at this moment in time is impossible.”

Steven McGarry, the Motherwell forward, added: “The thing I’ll remember is the look on Phil’s face when Davie Clarkson, his nephew, scored his second goal on Saturday. It really was an unbelievable goal and I turned around and looked at Phil when it hit the net. He just had a huge smile on his face at that moment – that’s what will live with me forever.”

Motherwell supporters want O’Donnell to be given a lasting memorial at Fir Park. Martin Rose, chairman of the Motherwell Supporters Trust, feels that the player, who helped Motherwell to win the Scottish Cup in 1991 in his first spell there, will be honoured. Some supporters are calling for the South Stand to be named in his honour, since the £1.75 million that Motherwell received from Celtic in 1994 – it remains the club’s record transfer fee - helped to finance its construction.