Town boss Kieran McKenna confirmed Leif Davis missed today’s 2-0 victory at Coventry City due to illness, while Sammie Szmodics remains unwell and Jaden Philogene did well to make it onto the bench having suffered a foot injury at Milllwall on Boxing Day.

Davis was a surprise absentee from the squad with Jacob Greaves coming into the team at left-back and impressing in what’s his secondary role.

“Leif was ill,” McKenna said. “There’s not much to say other than that, really.

“Of course, he was a loss and Jaden had a big, big knock on his foot as well, so did well really to even make himself available for a few minutes at the end.

“Being without your two left-siders who played the first game [against the Sky Blues] and George Hirst played the first game against them, a big credit to the group for the way that people came into the team and stepped up and that’s what we’ve always said we’re going to need and it helped tonight.”

Forward Szmodics has missed the last three games, also because of illness and McKenna is anticipating news of the Ireland international’s progress on Tuesday: “I’ll hopefully get an update tomorrow.”

McKenna says the flu bug which has been sweeping the country has also affected other people in and around the club, while Coventry lost players for previous games.

“I think it’s probably nationwide at the moment, isn’t it? I know my missus, everyone’s families will have had it at some point,” McKenna continued.

“It seems to have been in the country and we’ve certainly had our cases, as other teams have, and it’s a challenge because you don’t know when it’s going to hit people. But the group’s dealt with it well tonight.”

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