Town boss Kieran McKenna says there’s no guarantee Conor Townsend will be fit for next week’s trip to Newcastle, the left-back having missed this afternoon’s defeat to Arsenal with a hamstring problem along with Nathan Broadhead, who has a thigh issue.
The Blues are short on left-back options for the trip to the North-East with Leif Davis suspended for the game against the club he supports as well as the next two matches following his red card this afternoon.
"Conor, from the Chelsea game when he came on with a hamstring that he was struggling with after the Wolves game, so we’ve lost Conor and Nathan with a thigh issue,” McKenna said.
Regarding the prospects of summer signing Townsend being fit for next week, McKenna added: "It still needs to be scanned, but certainly no guarantees he’ll be available next week.”
If Townsend doesn’t make it, then it seems likely Jacob Greaves will be at left-back at St James’ Park, as was the case after Davis’s dismissal against the Gunners with Cameron Burgess coming on for Jack Clarke, however, McKenna included Somto Boniface on the bench for the first time this afternoon, the 19-year-old having signed from Chelsea in January.
"He’s made a good impact,” McKenna said. "He’s only been here a short amount of time, but he’s made a good impression in the times that he’s trained with us and we think he’s got a good future.”
Liam Delap was again among the subs for the Blues due to the rib injury he suffered against Wolves but the Town manager says the England U21 international is making progress.
"It was always the case [that he’s be on the bench],” McKenna said. "I don’t want to go into it much, I don’t want to put an X on his spot for any opponents, but he’s got a rib injury that he’s doing really, really well to be out there with.
"He’s not able to train pain free at the moment but he still wants to be available and in terms of the actual site of the injury it’s safe to do so, although painful, or else we wouldn’t put him in that scenario.
"Not ready to start but available for some minutes if and when the team needs it, which is good from him.
"It’s getting better week by week, it’s better this week than it was last week, so hopefully with another week’s careful management, it’ll be much, much better by next weekend.”
George Hirst was again one of Town’s better performers in Delap’s absence: "He’s done very well, he’s one who has stepped up really, really well. He can be proud of his efforts. I thought he did his best today as well and occupied the centre-halves well, so it’s good to have him ready to help the team as well.”