Blues boss Kieran McKenna says his squad is in really good health ahead of Saturday’s home game against Wrexham as Town go into a run of seven games in 22 days with Alex Palmer and Sammie Szmodics close to returns and Wes Burns having played a behind-closed-doors match during the international break.

Keeper Palmer has been out with a calf injury since the Charlton match a month ago, while forward Szmodics underwent knee surgery after the West Brom game a few days later. Winger Burns suffered an ACL rupture at Liverpool at the end of January.

“Really good health, only Alex Palmer still in recovery, Sam Szmodics still in recovery and Wes is really building up well now, fully training with the group,” McKenna said.

“Played some 11-v-11 in an in-house game in the international break and we’ll build that up over the next week or two. We’re in really good health and happy with where we are.”

The Town manager added: “Alex is probably a couple of weeks, Sam Szmodics maybe a little bit less and Wes, we’re working to a plan with him at the moment, which is building up his training.

“As I say, he played an in-house game last week for some minutes, there’s a chance that he’ll be involved an U21 fixture or two, so we’re looking at that as a possibility when that’s appropriate as averse to training with the first-team group.

“We have to try and make sure we get that one right because it was a big injury at an important stage of his career and he has been and is a really important player for us, so we’ll try and get that one right.

“We don’t want to put any definite timescale on it but he’s out there competing with the rest of the players now pretty much with no limitations. Hopefully we’ll see him on the pitch again soon in match action.

“Sammie and Palms are both in a good direction. You can never be exact but certainly shouldn’t be more than a couple of weeks for either.”

Regarding Republic of Ireland manager Heimir Hallgrimsson’s claim Town may have “overloaded” Szmodics, McKenna said: “I’ve not really got anything to add on that one, to be honest. I’ve already spoken about Sammie’s situation and injury, and I don’t see there being anything more to comment on. Any comment on it would probably be better done privately.”

Photo: TWTD

MaySixth added 15:36 - Nov 21 Touch wood we stay relatively fit for a brutal stretch of games.
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flykickingbybgunn added 15:39 - Nov 21 Be pleased to see the injured 3 back. Especially Wes. A cruel injury,
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Linkboy13 added 16:07 - Nov 21 Would keep Walton in dominates his area better both good keepers though.
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Bazza8564 added 17:36 - Nov 21 None of those missing players play tomorrow and thats all that bothers me now. Time for 3 points again before the away run
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armchaircritic59 added 18:56 - Nov 21 You don't mess around with ACL injuries. Only when a player is back up to full speed and fully fit, do you " risk " him, or her. Continuing the post from Bazza above, one thing's for sure, we'll know where we stand by the end of December re promotion possibilities. In my book at least, it has to be probabilities.
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