Town boss Kieran McKenna has no new injury worries ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup fourth round tie at home to Maidstone United, but defender Janoi Donacien is seeing a specialist today regarding his ongoing groin injury and Brandon Williams remains with parent club Manchester United.

“No new issues, so that’s a big positive. We go into it again with pretty healthy numbers,” McKenna said at his lunchtime press conference.

Donacien, 30, has been suffering with the groin issue since pre-season and last featured for the first team in the Carabao Cup tie against Fulham at the start of November.

“Still unavailable, he’s seeing a specialist today,” McKenna said regarding the St Lucia international.

“Unfortunately, it hasn’t progressed how we would have hoped, so that’s really disappointing for Janoi and for us.

“He’s seeing a specialist today in London, so we’ll find out what the outcome is from that.”

Full-back Brandon Williams has been back with parent club Manchester United for assessment for the last couple of weeks and remains at Old Trafford with a decision to be made on whether to continue his loan spell for the second half of the season.

“Not back yet, still with United,” McKenna said. “That will be a discussion and a decision to be made before the window closes next week.”

McKenna confirmed that his loan players all have permission to face Maidstone: “Jeremy [Sarmiento], of course, played for us in the last round, Omari [Hutchinson] played for us in the last round and Lewis Travis has got permission to play in this.”

The Blues boss says young striker Gerrard Buabo could also be involved having come on as a sub in the third-round tie at AFC Wimbledon but is being carefully monitored following a long spell out with a hamstring injury.

“It’s possible,” he said. “He’s still limited in his rehabilitation, to be fair. He played 45 minutes for the U21s, which is the maximum that they felt comfortable for him to do so far.

“So he is still very much in the rebuilding process, but it is a possibility that he will be involved in the squad.”

Photo: Matchday Images

runningout added 14:44 - Jan 26 it’s going to be a Desmond 2 : 2
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dirtydingusmagee added 15:14 - Jan 26 Hope Janoi gets fit again soon , but its not looking promising for him .Its a pity, as he was always dependable .
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Monkey_Blue added 15:17 - Jan 26 Runningout: what? If paul cook were still in charge and we hadn’t had more than two years of a manager who doesn’t have the insight of a drunk fan in a pub I’d still think that was a negative prediction. Never understood the positive of “Paul cook sounds like a fan” and as you are a fan you are proving my point. We could play the U21’s and still reasonably be seen as favourites. Could we lose or draw? It’s possible but only someone drunk or on drugs would think it’s probable.

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Bazza8564 added 15:35 - Jan 26 Personally I would really love to see another appearance from Buabo, accepting it might be off the bench. With no midweek game this week and five days since Leicester i'm hoping we will put out a strong side, we've seen how 2 week international breaks can hinder our rhythm and we could do with a real decent win to set us up again
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chepstowblue added 15:45 - Jan 26 I saw a dingbat on another social media platform suggest that it would do us good to lose tomorrow so that we can concentrate on the league. I truly despair. I never heard that in 78, and thank Christ Bobby Robson didn't share the same backward logic as many of these nouveau football supporters who idolise Simon Jordan, Jim White, and the moronic presenters on sky sports. Put out a strong side that respects the competition, the opposition, and the paying fans. That way we should get the job done without any embarrassment.

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PhuketPete added 08:17 - Jan 27 @chepstow.. totally agree esp about respect for paying fans. If it’s correct that we’ve sold 22000+ in addition to the 4500 to the Stones - that is incredible for a non League opponent and that alone demands a strong team albeit with fringe players having their chances to start. Also agree with Bazza about momentum. Breaks haven’t been very kind to us so far this season. I’d like to see us really have a go and emulate Bournemouth’s result last night !.

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