Alfred Johansson has robustly defended his decision to rotate his Motherwell side for Sunday's shock League Cup exit at Stenhousemuir as the Fir Park club prepare to welcome Freiburg for one of their biggest European occasions.

The Lanarkshire side have been playing three games a week in the infancy of the campaign, juggling domestic action with an attempt to qualify for the Conference League.

A six-game unbeaten run - coupled with an almost seamless transition in playing style from predecessor Jens Berthel Askou to Johansson - drew praise, but the Swede faced criticism for making eight changes to his side at the weekend.

Motherwell - who have not won major silverware since 1991 - went on to suffer a surprise extra-time last-16 defeat at second-tier Stenhousemuir, but their manager said his hand was forced by a hectic schedule and injury problems.

"To make assumptions about squad selection based on sharpness, I don't buy that narrative," said Johansson, who confirmed Oscar Priestman and Johnny Koutroumbis have been added to a lengthy list of absentees.

"Since the competitive season started, we've been playing a game every three-and-a-half days on average. We've been doing that with between seven and 10 first-team players unavailable, some due to freak injuries.

"There was a fracture in Johnny Koutroumbis' hand at some point because his thumb was stuck in his shirt. You also have overuse injuries that come from playing too much football.

"I mentioned on Sunday that I wanted to stop the vicious cycle of overuse injuries. That's why it was very important to put out the team that I believed were the best team to perform.

"We accept criticism after Sunday, but it has to be the right narrative, the right context."

After dispatching HJK with one of their finest European performances, Motherwell are gearing up for one of their biggest nights at Fir Park in a generation.

German side Freiburg, who reached the final of last season's Europa League, are formidable opponents.

Aston Villa, who beat Freiburg in that final in Istanbul in May, spent a club-record fee of just over £50m to sign midfielder Johan Manzambi from the Bundesliga club last month.

Everton also paid £17m this summer to make Merlin Rohl's loan move permanent.

Meanwhile, Julian Schuster's side have boosted their own squad with summer arrivals totalling a combined cost of about £30m.

Their competitive season is yet to begin, but they warmed up for Thursday's first leg in Lanarkshire by beating Crystal Palace 3-0 on Saturday.

Freiburg have regularly finished in the top half of the Bundesliga since their promotion back to Germany's top flight in 2016-17. They ended seventh last term and fifth the campaign before.

Motherwell know they will need all the backing they can get if they hope to achieve a famous result, with another big home crowd set to roar on their side.

"We are so happy and proud to be here," Johansson said. "It will be another buzzing night at Fir Park.

"The players have realised how good they are and that's a very important feeling for self-confidence, motivation and so on.

"They also see this as a huge opportunity to get better."

Motherwell face going into Thursday's first leg without a senior right-back following the news of another injury to Koutroumbis.

Fellow full-back Tom Sparrow is still suffering with a knock as Stephen O'Donnell steps up his recovery from an injury sustained in pre-season.

Johansson is delighted to boost his forward options, though, with new arrival from Gillingham Seb Palmer-Houlden set to be available for selection.