Boss Kieran McKenna has revealed keeper Aro Muric missed out on a Town debut with a minor calf problem, while Wes Burns suffered a hamstring issue in the second half of this afternoon’s 2-0 home defeat to Liverpool.
Muric was a surprise omission from the starting line-up and McKenna says the Kosovan, a summer signing from Burnley, wasn’t ruled out until this morning.
"He got a knock in his calf in the early part of the week,” the Blues boss said.”We were hoping that he would be OK up until he had a fitness test this morning, but he wasn’t able to make it.
"I think that’s a big positive from the day, if I’m honest. That was such an important lesson for the group. Christian Walton’s come into the game not having played a league fixture for 15, 16 months, his last league fixture was in League One [at Fleetwood on the final day of 2022/23] and he’s trained and prepared all last season and didn’t manage to get minutes in the league.
"Lost his position through an injury [at the start of last season] and he’s stayed ready and performed really, really well today.
"I think there’s a big lesson for us and a big reinforcement for the group in terms of everyone being ready and everyone being needed and certainly that’s going to be the case all season and that showed up pretty well today.”
Burns’s injury sounds potentially more concerning, the Wales international making way just before the hour mark having picked up the injury just after half-time.
"Wes has a hamstring, so we don’t know the severity of it yet but I’m sure he will get assessed in the next few days,” McKenna added. "That’s a disappointing one, so we’ll have to assess that.”