Town boss Kieran McKenna says he’s going to have a late call at left wing-back ahead of Saturday’s game at Sheffield Wednesday with Matt Penney and Hayden Coulson both having been out injured and Kane Vincent-Young suspended, while Lee Evans will similarly be assessed tomorrow but Scott Fraser and Vaclav Hladky are both back training again.
Penney has been out after suffering a minor knee injury at Bolton, while Coulson has been unavailable since taking a heavy blow to his leg at Wycombe in early November.
With Vincent-Young banned after his late red card at Wimbledon on Tuesday, McKenna says he will leave it until Friday before making his choice on who comes in to replace the former Colchester man.
"It’s going to be a late decision that one,” he said. "There are still a few things that can change with injuries and otherwise, so we’ll make that call after training or by training tomorrow.
"We’ve just had a good session on the grass, but we’ve got another training session and another 48 hours before the game, so we’ll keep our options open.
"We have good options there, there are different dynamics that we can play on that side of the pitch, and we’ll try and pick what is right for the game on Saturday.”
In addition to former Owl Penney and Coulson, who is on loan for the season from Middlesbrough, McKenna hasn’t ruled out starting Kyle Edwards at left wing-back, while Bailey Clements had a run of games at left-back late in Paul Cook’s time at the club.
Keeper Hladky has been absent from the bench for the last couple of games due to illness but is now available again, while Evans suffered a groin problem in the warm-up ahead of the Accrington match and Fraser has had a knee problem.
The availability of Evans in particular would be a bonus with skipper Sam Morsy set to serve the second game of his three-match ban.
"Vas is back in training, Scott’s back in training, that’s good, he’s been training with us for the last few days and is now available,” McKenna continued.
"Lee Evans has trained individually today and we have to wait until tomorrow, he’s still touch and go in terms of his involvement for Saturday, so we’ll see how he is with training tomorrow.”
Quizzed on claims Fraser is interesting Swansea, who are managed by his old MK Dons boss Russell Martin, McKenna added: "The club haven’t come to me with anything concrete on that one, to be honest.
"Those calls are directed towards the club but they haven’t come to me with anything concrete on that, so as far as I’m concerned he’s part of the planning.
"He’s obviously not been able to get on the pitch in my time here so far, but it’s only been maybe five weeks or so.
"He’s had a little injury in that time, obviously we had two games called off due to Covid. I know all about Scott’s qualities, watched lots of him for Burton and for MK, so he’s certainly a player who has quality and impact at this level and is a player who can contribute for us when he gets the opportunity.”
Jon Nolan has been out with a variety of injuries since last March, initially a knee problem, but is now back in training but McKenna says the former Shrewsbury man still needs a little more time before being in the running for first-team inclusion.
"He’s probably still a little bit away from contending to start games. He’s back in the training group,” he said.
"When you’ve been out for a good amount of time, you can often get some other little issues and niggles on the side, that’s stalled him at times over recent periods, I believe.
"Thankfully, his major injury that he had has much improved, no big long-term issues there hopefully, so now it’s just about getting a rhythm in training, that’s obviously a challenge when you’ve had a longer injury and a long time out.
"At the moment, he’s just trying to get a consistent run and rhythm of training, build that resilience up to be able to be out there competing every day and he’s getting through that at the moment and getting closer and if he can keep doing that he can obviously start to contend for minutes, but at the moment he’s still a bit away from that.”