Town boss Kieran McKenna has revealed that the illness bug which has been circulating the club over the last week has hit virtually every member of the squad with two players sent home from training today and taking antibiotics ahead of Monday's game at Lincoln City.
Prior to Thursday’s 2-2 draw at Portsmouth, McKenna said two players had been ill before the 3-0 Boxing Day victory over Oxford with another seven reporting symptoms after the win against the U’s.
He says the situation has been much the same since the game at Pompey.
"We’re in a similar position to pre-Portsmouth, to be honest,” he said. "For the Portsmouth game we managed to get everybody out and ready for the game.
"It’s been similar in terms of lots of players reporting sickness after the game, more than I realised really in terms of who were playing the game at Fratton Park and feeling a long, long way off 100 per cent.
"We’ve had two players sent home today on antibiotics and I think just about everyone in the squad now has had symptoms.
"But obviously it’s not too serious. Some are managing to come through it in a day or two, some a little bit longer, some have managed to play and train right the way through and some have had to miss training.
"We’ll take as many precautions as we can and give the players as long as they can to see their availability and I’m sure knowing the character of the group, similar to Fratton Park on Thursday night, the large majority will put their hands up and say that they’re ready to go again and it’ll be up to the medical team and ourselves then just to make the judgement calls on that.”
He added: "It’s a fluey bug, anything from headaches to throats and sinuses. There are a few who seem to have ended up with chest infections and antibiotics, it’s probably similar to what’s going around up and down the country at the moment.
"But once it spreads into a group who are in close proximity, it’s managed pretty much hit every member of the squad in some aspect over the last seven days.”
McKenna says there is better news on the injury front: "We’re doing OK. No big issues after the other night. The players who have come back, Lee [Evans] and Marcus [Harness] especially are coping OK, so we just need to keep managing them.
"Marcus has done two 60-minute spells now and on that front we’re making up good ground.”