Town boss Paul Jewell has no new injuries ahead of Saturday’s trip to Hull City. Striker Paul Taylor remains on the sidelines with a cracked bone in his foot with the next few days set to reveal whether the former Peterborough man will need surgery and face a longer spell out.
The 25-year-old has been out of action for a month with Jewell still hopeful he will avoid having to go under the knife: "The last card in the pack is surgery and if it’s surgery it’ll be a long-term one. We’re hoping that going down this route he won’t need surgery.
"Because he’s such a keen lad, we’ve got to be careful not to bring him back early and set him back. The next 10 days are really vital to see how he comes through.”
The Town boss confirmed that midfielder Luke Hyam is fit after his back problem, but summer signing Elliott Hewitt has been hit by a further setback as he continues his recovery from the hip operations he underwent while with former club Macclesfield.
"He had tonsillitis last week and he lost five kilos,” Jewell said. "It’s just been one thing after another with that poor kid.
"He was getting fit and he had a bad bout of tonsillitis. He’s a like a drink of water anyway, so for him to lose five kilos, he’ll need building up again.”
The Blues manager says Michael Chopra is fine and will be in contention having been left out of the squad for the defeat to Cardiff having been charged with race-fixing by the BHA two days beforehand: "He’s all right.
"I left him out of the Cardiff game because of what had gone on off the pitch. I thought it was best for him. There’s no problem with Chopra, he’s looked sharp.”
Jewell says he will have to consider the match fitness — or lack of it - of his loan additions and short-term signing Nigel Reo-Coker ahead of the trip to the KC Stadium: "I think against Cardiff you could see Richie Wellens and DJ Campbell tiring a little bit. They’ll be better for that [game].”
Central defender Tommy Smith is due back at the club after international duty in New Zealand on Friday morning.