Striker Oli Hawkins is set to undergo a knee operation which is expected to keep him out for around six weeks, while James Norwood may not be able to start tomorrow’s home game against Peterborough having suffered fatigue in his hamstring during last Saturday’s 1-0 win at Burton and Kayden Jackson missed training earlier in the week and is a doubt.
Assistant boss Stuart Taylor, again standing in for manager Paul Lambert at his pre-match press conference, says Hawkins has been feeling the problem for a little while.
"Oli’s out injured, he’s going for a knee operation but hopefully won’t be out for too long,” he said.
"It’s been niggling at him for a couple of weeks now and we’ve tried to manage it and he’s always got through the pain barrier, but last week he actually came out of training and hence the reason he’s [having the surgery].
"We’ve tried to get him through and manage things but at the start of the week it was just too much for him.
"I don’t see it being anything going into double figures in terms of weeks. I think it’ll probably come in around about the six-week mark.”
He added: "Kayden missed training at the start of the week, so we’ll see whether he comes into contention along with Nors for tomorrow.”
However, he says Lambert will have to consider whether Norwood is OK to start following last week’s game away against the Brewers.
"Nors came off [in the 59th minute], he just felt a little bit of fatigue in his hamstring so he just needed protecting from that,” he said.
"Whether the manager goes and starts him tomorrow is something he’ll go and think about. We just need to wait and see on that one.”
Regarding Jackson’s problem, he added: "It’s a thigh and hip injury. We have to make a decision on him without giving too much away.
"He never trained earlier on in the week, but towards the end of the week he was on the grass.”
Given the situations with Hawkins, Norwood and Jackson, Aaron Drinan may well get the nod to start against Posh.
Jackson and Emyr Huws travelled to the Pirelli Stadium last weekend but weren’t involved on the day, however, Taylor says they took that professionally.
"As I said, Kayden was injured at the start of the week but he’s getting over that now,” he continued.
"Every reaction from every player has been what we’ve been looking for, it’s been positive, everybody that doesn’t play is going to be disappointed and if they were happy not to be playing then you question their professionalism in that sense.
"He showed the right reaction, it’s a good mentality to see, everybody wants to go and win games and achieve the same goals. Everybody’s been totally fine and everybody’s trained well.”
James Wilson, Cole Skuse (both knee), Keanan Bennetts (groin) have also been out of late with the centre-half and the on-loan Borussia Mönchengladbach wideman both having been back out on the Playford Road turf.
"Keanan came back training this week which was good,” Taylor added. "He came through the session fine, which was positive so he won’t be too far away.”
"And Willo started running on grass this week which was good to see, and Cole is coming along fine.”
Moving on to the longer-term injured, he says Kane Vincent-Young is continuing to make progress.
"Kane’s trained a couple of times this week and we’re hoping that he goes and gets another full week behind him next week,” Taylor said. "And then we can start looking at some sort of playing some sort of game for the U23s or in-house.”
Midfielder Tristan Nydam has been out of action since breaking his ankle and suffering ligament damage in July 2019 and Taylor says the 21-year-old is also making progress.
"He’s coming along fine,” he said. "We do feel Tristan has been forgotten about in that sense, but certainly, inside the building, he’s a big part in the dressing room. He’s well-liked and he’s got a great personality, and he’s showed incredible courage to come through.
"And he’s been back on the grass, which has been fantastic to see and hopefully he goes from strength to strength. He’s a great character, a really strong character.”
Taylor says Lambert still needs to take it a little bit easy having been ill with Covid-19 but is working his way back to full involvement.
"He really does, but with his personality, his character and the way he’s always been through his career, he’s never going to go and take a back step and take the easy route,” he said.
"He’s been on the pitch again, he’s been involved in doing as much as he possibly can. I think he’s just trying to build back up again, build his strength up and it’s really important that he does that and not just sit back too much.
"It’s finding that middle ground and just making sure that he gets stronger but at the same time without doing too much.”
Taylor expects to be joined in the dugout by Lambert tomorrow, the Blues boss having been on the bench at the Pirelli Stadium, although rarely venturing towards the edge of the technical area.
"I’m sure he will be!” Taylor continued. "I don’t know for sure, he’ll see how he is when he wakes up in the morning, but he was on the touchline last week so I don’t see him going back and taking a rest, I think he’s always one that’s pushing himself. I’m sure he’ll be on the touchline tomorrow.”