Town boss Kieran McKenna says Jaden Philogene returned to training yesterday following his ankle injury, while he expects Azor Matusiwa to be fine for Sunday’s home game against Southampton and gave an update on new signings Jens Cajuste and Chuba Akpom, as well as longer-term absentees Wes Burns, Conor Townsend and Harry Clarke.

Philogene hurt his ankle in the final pre-season friendly at Auxerre and as a result missed the games at Birmingham and Bromley. But McKenna says the former Aston Villa and Hull man is making progress.

“He trained yesterday, so he's made a good recovery,” he said. “Seems to be a quick healer with a couple of things that he has had.

“How much involvement he'll have, whether it's from the bench or to start, how many minutes, we’ll decide over the next 24 hours. But he got through training yesterday, which was a big boost.”

Matusiwa wasn’t involved at Bromley as he had a tight groin following his Championship debut at Birmingham.
 
“Hopefully,” McKenna said when asked whether the Dutchman will be OK to face the Saints.
 
“It was just a response to, probably, the increased load and the intensity on Friday night. It wasn't a possibility to involve him on Tuesday, but hopefully he keeps continuing in the right direction over the next 48 hours and he'll be ready for involvement on Sunday.”

New loan signings Cajuste and Akpom joined the club having had little pre-season, although with the Ajax forward ahead of the Napoli midfielder.

“They're not ready to contribute as much as what we would like on the match pitch, that's the truth,” McKenna said.

“Both have had very disrupted or minimal pre-seasons, really. In Jens’s case, almost a minimum pre-season, so we're working through that process at a moment with him. 

“But he's a naturally fit player with a lot of ability. Whether he can have some involvement this weekend, we'll wait and see.
 
“Chuba, a really disrupted pre-season, followed by a week pigeoned-up in a hotel, which isn't ideal when you've not had the pre-season. 

“He's one we need to be really careful with. He trained with the group in the early part of the week, but had some sort of muscle tightness and fatigue after those sessions. So we need to be really careful with how we progress him. 
 
“We have to make decisions with a long-term view going into the weekend, as much as it's a really important game and we want players ready to contribute. 
 
“We'll make the right decision over the next 24 hours about what his contribution will be and work to get him up to speed as quickly as possible, but as safely as possible for a really big season, but a really busy season. 
 
“Ideally, they both would have been arriving fully ready to play and start matches straight away, but that's not been the case. That means that we've got to manage the period in between as carefully and prudently as we can.”

McKenna says right winger Chieo Ogbene has come through the opening games well as he made his return from the torn achilles which ended his season in October, despite being unexpectedly required from the start in both games, playing 138 minutes across the two matches.

“He's feeling good physically, which is good,” McKenna said. “Thankfully, no ill-effects so far.

“I think it's probably two-sided. I think from a football point of view, would you want to put him in that situation so quickly, playing the two games back to back, or would you rather have had him in Birmingham ready to come off the bench and throw himself into it for 20 minutes? I think you'd rather have had him ready to come off the bench, to be honest.

“On the other side, for him personally, getting two games in pretty quick succession and getting through the minutes and not having any ill-effects after, touch wood, I think that's a big positive. 

“I know he feels better after the two games and seems to have come through them well. It's probably been a pretty steep integration, but it's been what has been necessary, really, for the team at the moment and he seems to have come through it well.”

Regarding Clarke, who suffered a knee tendon injury in pre-season, McKenna says quite how long the right-back might be out for isn’t yet entirely clear.
 
“It's still a little bit up in the air, to be honest,” he said. “It's a tricky injury, so it is a possibility that it might not be too long and it could be in over a few weeks, and there's a possibility it could be longer.

‘We’re hoping for the shorter scenario, but it's still at a point where you can't really tell which way it'll go.”

Townsend has had his ACL surgery and McKenna expects the left-back to be out for the whole season.
 
 “He had a surgery and all went well, so that was a positive,” McKenna said. “I think with that injury, you're talking about that sort of timescale. Nothing's impossible, but I think realistically it would be unlikely that it would have too much part to play this year.”
 
Burns, who suffered an ACL injury of his own in January, is still a little way off, McKenna says.
 
“I think there's the return and then the return with these injuries, but he's progressing really well, working hard, doing all the right things,” the Blues boss continued.
 
“Everything being really, really smooth from hereon in, then hopefully he could be back training with the group at some time in the autumn before we go into the winter period.

“But there are different hurdles and steps to take along the way, so we don't want to put any sort of pressure on the timescale on that one.

“It has to be right, get the injury 100 per cent and we'll be really glad to have him back whenever that time comes.”

Photo: Matchday Images