Town boss Paul Hurst has confirmed that Cole Skuse is over the head injury which forced him off against Norwich a fortnight ago, but Emyr Huws and Teddy Bishop are not yet ready for first-team involvement, Janoi Donacien is still to receive confirmation of his permanent leave to remain, while there is better news on Danny Rowe and Tom Adeyemi.
"He’s back to his intelligent best and his dry sense of humour,” Hurst said when asked about Skuse.
"It was important to make sure he’s right and he is and I’m sure he’s looking forward to getting back into action.”
Hurst says everyone else who has been involved lately is also fine: "In terms of the squad that’s been up for selection, they’re alright.”
Regarding Huws, who has been on his way back from the knee surgery which ended his 2017/18, he said: "Basically he’s been in and out [of training]. He keeps feeling things with his knee, behind his knee.
"He was back out there with Chris Skitt today but unfortunately, a bit like Teddy Bishop, Teddy’s trained the last couple of days but he’s also had times when he hasn’t trained.
"I think probably from before I came, it seems as though they’re still having issues in terms of getting out there consistently to then build a level of fitness which would then make them in contention for the squad.”
Is winger Rowe, who suffered an ankle injury while on loan at Lincoln late last season, closer to Championship involvement?
"He’s certainly done well in the [U23s] games,” Hurst reflected. "I think he’s still probably still not quite absolutely 100 per cent in terms of fitness. And by that I don’t mean his injury, I mean to go from minute zero to 95 or whatever it may be.
"But he has managed to stay fit and has been out on the training pitch doing what he does.”
Hurst says Donacien is still to have been returned his passport by the Home Office bearing the stamp which will confirm his leave to remain.
When it arrives that will see the St Lucian right-back's move from Accrington will become a permanent switch, reducing the number of players on loan at Town to five, the maximum permitted in a matchday squad. In the meantime, Hurst will continue to have to leave one of his loanees out of his 18.
"I spoke to him today and he’s obviously frustrated with it today as well,” the Blues manager said. "He’s asked his people whether there’s anything more that he can do and they’re saying there’s not.
"Like I say, I find it a really strange situation when he’s been over here and has been playing football, everyone can see that, it’s not like he’s playing for a Sunday league team going under a different name or they’re not sure who he is.
"So, that gives me a dilemma and a situation that I’d prefer not to be in but we’ll have to get on with that while that’s the case.”
Hurst confirmed that Dean Gerken will, as expected, continue in goal at Hull on Saturday - "Dean will play” - and says Bartosz Bialkowski has reacted to being dropped against Norwich as he would hope he might.
"He’s got on with his job, as I’d expect,” Hurst said. "I want to work with honest people. Bart hasn’t come in and seen me, which suggests to me that he knows himself that he probably hasn’t been at his best.
"As I said before, I’m sure that that will return but we’ll see how long he’s got to be patient on that because it’s only fair that if someone goes in and does well that they keep the shirt. That’s the scenario that we’re in at the minute.”
Hurst says having the players on the training field during the last fortnight has been useful: "Yes, although we’ll get to Saturday and the result’s positive we’ll say, ‘It was brilliant’ and if it’s not it’ll be like, ‘What was the point?’.
"That’s not how it works realistically. But we’ve got some good work into them, they also then had three days’ downtime so to speak, and they came back and looked really refreshed, smiles on their faces and ready to go.”
Regarding Adeyemi, who has been out since pre-season with an achilles injury after missing most of 2017/18 due to a hamstring problem, he said: "I believe he’s making progress to a point where he might be able to come back out and do a little bit of work on the grass.
"He’s been gym based. He’s been on the gravity machine and think he’s managed to step that up, so the next step is going outside and doing the running and work out there.
"So if that’s the case, which may be tomorrow or the start of next week, I’m not sure then how long, if it went well, that would take.
"Naturally he’s relatively fit but clearly he’s missed a helluva lot of training and unfortunately not just this season, so that will definitely be one where we’ll have to just see how it goes. For Tom’s sake, hopefully he can get out there and stay fit.”
Toto Nsiala remains unavailable for Saturday’s trip to the KCOM Stadium as he is serving the second match of this three-game ban.