Town boss Kieran McKenna says winger Wes Burns’s ACL surgery went well, Christian Walton is expected to be out for eight weeks, but Sammie Szmodics is back for Saturday’s fourth-round FA Cup tie at Coventry with a couple of other players facing checks.

Burns has been ruled out for the season with the injury he suffered at Liverpool but McKenna says the operation that the Wales international underwent earlier in the week went well.

“He had surgery,” McKenna said. “Thankfully all went well to repair his ACL. There wasn’t too much damage to the other parts of the knee, so it’s as positive as it could be.”

Conor Chaplin (knee) and Szmodics (ankle) have been sidelined for the last few weeks but McKenna confirmed the former Colchester man will be back this weekend.

“Sam Szmodics will be in the squad tomorrow, he’s trained today with the group,” he said. “Conor Chaplin’s not training yet.

“It’s good to have Sam back. He’s been an important figure with his goals but he’s a different type to the forwards we had playing last week or over the last couple of weeks, and also an older player in that unit as well, which was a really young unit last weekend.

“George Hirst is the senior figure in there and he’s in his mid-twenties. Nice to have Sam back and the different dynamic that he brings to that group.”

Regarding Walton, who strained his groin at Liverpool, McKenna added: “It’s looking at in and around eight weeks for the prognosis. Of course, for these things you have to monitor as you go along. Sometimes it can be a little bit quicker, sometimes a little bit longer.

“We’ll get him back as quickly as possible, but it’s that kind of rough timescale we’ve been given.”

In addition, the Blues boss says there are one or two doubts: “We’ve got one or two we’re getting checks on, nothing major, but we’ve got one or two with niggly injuries that we’re going to check on that there’s going to be a late decision on whether they’re going to be available for the game.”

Regarding U21s possibly being involved, he added: “Not impossible one, but we’ll checking on the availability of one or two of ours. We’ve got pretty good depth at the moment.

“There’s a possibility one might be involved but also a possibility that we’ll be travelling with a really good bill of health for the senior players and try and keep that group together.”

McKenna confirmed there would be the expected changes and wouldn’t commit on whether new keeper Alex Palmer would be handed his debut.


“We’ll make the decision on tomorrow, what we think is right for the team and the group and we’ll do that for every game,” he said.

The Blues will be without Julio Ensico, who is cup-tied having played and scored for Brighton in their 4-0 win at Norwich in the last round.

Chiedozie Ogbene suffered an achilles tear at Brentford in October and is making progress but McKenna says is not expected to return this season.

“Progressing very well in terms of the rehab that he can [do] and has been good around the building,” he said. “But very unlikely to be involved this season as it stands.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Alphawhiskey added 14:11 - Feb 7 Tough game against Coventry. We need a win though for a big morale boost. COYB!!
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Orraman added 14:24 - Feb 7 Good to read that Sammie is back in squad. Hope he gets some game time v Coventry as need him back in contention for remainder of season. Has excellent scoring record throughout career and will help having an experienced older head in attack.
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Bluewhiteboy added 14:26 - Feb 7 Mckenna saying there were positives from last week's ross is an ultimate low. What were they then? No one got killed? Morsy and delap didn't get another pointless yellow? Pies were just above cold at half time. Just be honest it was poor, and it's on back end of a poor run and we're going to do everything not be that bad in future.
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Carberry added 14:30 - Feb 7 Good to have Szmodics back for his goals says the manager. That will be just the 4 then Kieran?
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baxterbasics added 14:47 - Feb 7 Yes Carberry, 4 goals from Smodz, second only to Delap with 8, and double that of our next highest scorer, Omari. Given he is not a consistent starter for us and has been injured, he's doing pretty good.
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TractorFrog added 14:50 - Feb 7 That feeling when knee surgery went well.
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BlueNomad added 16:11 - Feb 7 Do you remember back in the summer when there wasn’t the negativity we see from people who weren’t on here then? (And no, I’m not a “happy clapper”!)
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dirtydingusmagee added 19:19 - Feb 7 Good to see the smod is back Coyb
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WestSussexBlue added 20:18 - Feb 7 Bluewhiteboy; there are always positives, things to learn, both as a group and as individuals. No one ever learnt anything by not making mistakes. Besides, Kmc is hardly going to claim everything was poor and we deserved to lose.
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Leejames99 added 20:35 - Feb 7 Should hold his hands up for that one, bringing on J Taylor for Cajuste and leaving Morsy on the pitch with Phillips and Godfery on bench was diasterous and if he had pre-earned fans Walton was injured and muric was in he may of got a bit more support from fans and his confidence hitting rock bottom. No point buying and loaning these players if we aren't going to play them with the league most of the league one lads running around like competition winners. We can still stay up but has to find a team and stick to it, 70 changes is no good just to give the Hamadis, Burns and Morsys, Chaplin etc a go. Great league 1 and Championship hit their level most of them.

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