Winger Kyle Edwards is set to miss most of the rest of the season having suffered a quadriceps tear in training this week, but better news is that midfielder Lee Evans has been back with the squad at Playford Road.
Evans missed last week’s game at MK Dons as he was ill but the Welshman has been back in training.
"He’s been in over the last few days, so he’s back part of the squad, although obviously hasn’t trained so much over the last little period but he’s an important player for us and he’s part of the group available for the game tomorrow,” manager Kieran McKenna said.
The Blues boss had only one new injury to report but one which will keep Edwards sidelined for most of the remaining months of the campaign.
"We had an injury in the week with Kyle Edwards, which is a shame,” he said. "He’s had a quadriceps tear, he’s still working through it with the medical team and getting a specialist opinion, but it’s not going to be a very short-term one, it’s going to be more of a medium term one. We’re not sure on exact timescales yet, but it will certainly be towards the back end of the season before we see him again.
"That’s a real shame for him and a real shame for the squad. That’s the only major issue at the moment. Other than that we have a few little niggles and concerns but nothing too serious.”
Edwards, 23, has featured only once, as a sub against Gillingham, since McKenna took charge, having played more regularly early on in the campaign, but the Blues manager says the former West Brom man was making an impression in training in a wing-back role.
"Very disappointing for him, he’s a player who played a good amount of minutes in the first half of the season,” he said. "Hasn’t played loads of football in his young career so far, so he was enjoying this season in terms of getting a regular run of games.
"He had Covid when I first arrived so he missed the first couple of weeks of games and training sessions and I think that always puts you on the back foot a little bit and some of the other boys were able to get a little bit of a head start on him in putting themselves forward for minutes.
"He has been training well, has been waiting patiently for his opportunity. Wes [Burns] has been in fantastic form on that right-hand side, which was the position that Kyle was working hard on in training and making a good impression in training and something that we thought he could do well, as well as the other positions he can play.
"So, he’s chipping away in training and I’m sure his opportunity was going to come soon. It’s just a real shame for him now that he’s picked up this injury. We’re not sure on the timescales yet but it’s going to be a challenge for him to get back too soon before the end of the season.
"He’s a really positive person, Kyle. He doesn’t get down too easily so it’s obviously a setback for him but from my experience of him as a person so far he’ll stay positive, he’ll use the time well to work on other things in the gym and other things that you can improve when you’re out injured, and I’m sure he’ll be looking to come back fresh and with a clean state of mind and looking to make an impression on the team.”