Town boss Roy Keane says skipper Alex Bruce should be fit for Saturday’s home game against Swansea City. Bruce has been out of action since the 4-0 defeat to Newcastle due to a groin injury.
Keane told the club site: "Alex should be OK. He has trained all week and providing there is no change, he should be available for the weekend."
The Blues boss says the four senior players who arre away on international duty — Gareth McAuley, Carlos Edwards, Tamas Priskin and Owen Garvan — will be assessed on their return: "We will wait to see what their fitness levels are like when they get back.
"Carlos is obviously the biggest concern because of the travelling involved in coming back from Trinidad. When you are sitting on a plane for seven to 10 hours it does take the body time to recover."
Meanwhile, striker Jon Stead says picking up the first win of the season on Saturday is hugely important: "It would obviously be a massive blow if we didn't win against Swansea. The three points are on our mind, 100%. If we don't get them, it will be another big setback.
"The bonus would be that we don't have to wait long for our next game [against Watford on Tuesday] to put it right, but we don't even want to think about that scenario.”
Full-back Liam Rosenior says the squad and the management are doing everything they can to turn things around: "There is no panic here — not from the manager nor any of the players. We know where we are but this type of situation separates the men from the boys.
"We are not happy with it and we have had a few meetings between ourselves and also with the coaching staff and the manager. Hopefully you will see the fruits of that on Saturday and over the rest of the season.
"Because of the international break we have had to stew for two weeks and think about the situation we are in. Maybe that's the best that could have happened because we have built up a lot of motivation to put things right.”
Elsewhere, Town's reserve game at Luton, scheduled for next Wednesday, has switched to Tuesday 17th November with a 2pm kick-off.