Town boss Kieran McKenna says midfield duo Jens Cajuste and Kalvin Phillips haven’t yet been ruled out of Wednesday’s trip to take on his old club Manchester United.
The Swedish international turned his ankle during Saturday’s 4-1 home defeat to Tottenham, while Phillips suffered a calf problem.
"Jens and Kalvin going off was a blow,” McKenna said. "They're still being assessed, to be honest. We don't know the severity, it looks like hopefully neither is a very, very serious injury, but they're still sort of getting some scans and assessments today before we know further. And other than that, I think we're similar to how we are.
"Of course, it will be nice to have Axel Tuanzebe back in the squad [following his one-match ban]. Conor Chaplin’s got a full session in with the group today, which was good.
"Julio [Enciso]’s working with a physiotherapist still on his knee and otherwise, we're pretty much the same.”
Pressed on whether Cajuste and Phillips could be involved at Old Trafford, McKenna continued: "Honestly, I don’t think we can rule anything in or out, and that’s not being flippant with it. They’re getting some scans this morning, we’re waiting on results this afternoon.
"We think neither injury is very severe, but we can’t put any timescale, beyond that, to be honest.”
McKenna was delighted with the way the pair performed against Spurs: "I thought they both played really well on Saturday, I have to say, and in the game before that they played well as well.
"I think they're both on their own journeys. Jens has played more consistently over the last few months, probably, but I think he, on an individual level, can be really happy with his progress.
"He arrived late in the summer carrying a little bit of a [knee] issue that had to be managed and I think there are lots and lots of games in which he's been one of the most dominant midfielders on the pitch.
"So I think he can be really happy with his performances, but still, lots to come. He's still young, you know, 25 for Jens, who moved to the big leagues a little bit later in his career. He's still young, so I still think there's improvement to come.
"And Kalvin has some ups and downs across the season. But we feel like, certainly at the training ground, there's been improvement and he's getting to a good place.
"He’s started to show that on the pitch now pretty consistently as well. And I thought he played well on Saturday before he had to come off.
"So, with Sam [Morsy], Jack Taylor and Massimo [Luongo] there, it's a pretty strong unit. And we trust all of them.”
Skipper Morsy has been a mainstay of McKenna’s time in charge of the club but has been left on the bench on a couple of occasions recently as Phillips and Cajuste started. The Blues boss says the Egyptian international has reacted to his omission positively.
"He’s been fantastic, exactly we would expect, to be honest,” he said. "He’s led probably even more behind the scenes in the games that he hasn’t started, he’s been fantastic in training, has been excellent around the group and excellent in the dressing room and on the sidelines.
"I think he knows, like every player, that it’s a long season, there’s going to be different stages of the season where you might play more minutes and periods of the season when you might play a little bit less, but everyone has an important role to play in helping the squad pick up results.
"Samy knows that better than anyone and has embodied that better than anyone at the training ground.”
Regarding Chaplin, who has been out of action since the turn of the year with a knee problem, he added: "He trained with the group today, was involved with the group at the back end of last week, but coming back off of a good amount of time out now. He’s trained a bit more fully today, so he’s not too far away from involvement.”
Reflecting on the Saturday-Wednesday gap between matches, McKenna says the four days between the games means there’s less of an impact on players’ load.
"I think that’s fair to say,” he said. "The extra recovery day is important, so it means that today the players are still recovering, and it was a physical game [against Spurs].
"But we’ve got tomorrow to train properly and on Wednesday morning to prepare as well.
"I think we’ll go into the game with a good amount of freshness, I don’t think freshness will be an issue, so we’ll look to go there with lots of energy.”