Unbeaten Saints top the Northern Conference of the Nivea Superleague, while Belfast Star sit in second as they come head to head.

Such is the Star injury crisis that retired former Irish international Adrian Fulton may be called upon to make a comeback.

The string of problems include number one point guard Ciaran McVeigh (pictured), who was unable to train last night due to illness, while Niall Mullan has a back injury, Michael McKillop has sustained a dislocated shoulder and Lithuanian Rimas Kidykas has 'flu.

Added to that, coach O'Neill has decided to cut his other Lithuanian Luidvik Babaluskus.

On the back of their superb victory over reigning champions Killester last Saturday night, this is the last thing O'Neill needed to deal with.

"It's a matter of counting the bodies and seeing if we can get nine to travel. We have to take nine to the Saints or we get fined," said O'Neill.

"So to make sure that we don't get fined we may have to bring Adrian (Fulton) out of retirement. We had him registered for the season just in case.

"It's an incredible situation and a real shame because we played so well against Killester but we still don't know just how good we are.

"Every game we are testing ourselves but until we get everyone back we'll not know just how far we can go this season."

O'Neill knows that Saints are certainly going to test their resolve to the limit as they have a very encouraging start to the season.

"Their Irish players have been some of the best in Ireland for years - the Donnelly boys Emmet, James and David are outstanding.

"And they have American Kenny Gamble who has been around for ages. It's going to be very tough but we have to be ready and you have to deal with situations like this and be positive and I believe we can win it."