Town boss Kieran McKenna says the illness which has impacted the Blues squad in recent weeks is dissipating but is not yet entirely cleared up, but reports no new injuries ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup third round tie at home to Rotherham United.

Most of the Town players having been affected by the flu bug over the last fortnight and Leif Davis and George Edmundson were forced out of Monday’s 1-1 draw at Lincoln and Janoi Donacien came off at half-time.

Quizzed on the health of the squad, McKenna said: “A little bit but still a bit to go, to be honest. It’s still been a tricky few days. As I’ve said, I’ve not experienced anything like it in terms of an illness bug going through a group.

“There’s only maybe one or two players at this point who haven’t had quite severe symptoms.

“We’ve had a couple more off the last few days, there’s a lot of the players and staff who are on antibiotics now to try and clear it. It’s not quite cleared the group yet.

“Having said that, we’re in a better position than we were a few days ago and some of those who were unavailable a few days ago are now better.

“We’re getting towards, hopefully, the end of it, but it’s been a really difficult situation and the players have trooped through it as well as possible but it’s been a big challenge and we’re still in the middle of that challenge.

“We’re hopeful by the start of next week that the last few players who have picked it up later on will be coming out of the back end of it.”

Regarding injuries, McKenna added: “We’re OK, touch wood, we’ve had a better run now over the last few weeks and we’re pretty healthy, so it’s just Dominic [Ball] and Panutche [Camara] and Tyreece [John-Jules] of course, who continues to get his treatment at Arsenal, and Nick Hayes.

“It’s just the illnesses at the moment to overcome and we’ll be in a much healthier position.”

Asked whether any of the younger players might be involved in the squad as was the case in the Papa Johns Trophy and in Town’s two previous FA Cup ties against non-league opposition, McKenna said: “It’ll be a senior squad that’s involved in it. I guess it depends what you count as young, of course Cam Humphreys will continue to be with us.

“But the squad will be a [senior one], we’ll respect the competition, we’ll respect the game, respect the difficulty of the opponent and it will be a first-team group that share the minutes and the subs’ bench.”

Photo: TWTD

dirtydingusmagee added 15:11 - Jan 6 good to hear it seems to be on the way out, hopefully we can progress in cup .COYB
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