Ex-Blues forward Nathan Broadhead is a doubt ahead of Friday’s FA Cup fourth round tie between Town and his new club Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground.

Broadhead, 27, made the move back home to North Wales in the summer for an initial £7.5 million having been a part of the back-to-back promotion-winning team at Portman Road.

The Wales international, who has scored four goals in 16 starts and 11 sub appearances since rejoining the club he left aged 10 to move to Everton’s academy, missed Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at home to Millwall but manager Phil Parkinson says he could be back to face his old side.

“Broady, the Tuesday after the transfer window closed, had a slight problem with his groin but is making good progress so we don’t anticipate that to be too long,” Parkinson told the Wrexham Leader.

“He did some part of the training today, so depending on his reaction tomorrow, we’ll see how he is. But the good news is that he’s come through what he did this morning okay.”

Parkinson has confirmed he will be without midfielder Matty James (toe), wing-back Libby Cacace (hamstring) and defender Zak Vyner (toe), a late January signing from Bristol City.

“Libby has had a scan and there’s a very low grade hamstring problem,” Parkinson explained. “Nothing too serious but obviously we’ve got to make sure we get it right.

“Matty has got a small fracture in his toe so we’ve now got to get the swelling down on that and then just see how he can manage with the pain.

“It is difficult to say [a timescale] because it’s going to be once the swelling comes out of the joint that we’ll be able to determine that.

“It wasn’t as bad as it could have been, so it was reasonably positive, but equally, it’s not ideal to lose two key players but that’s what you’ve got a squad for.

“We’ve probably had a decent run over the last month or two with injuries and that’s what a squad’s for, for players to step in.

“Zak is back in training at the start of next week. He’s been running but he hasn’t had any contact at the moment but we knew the timescale when we brought him in.”

Defenders Lewis Brunt (thigh) and Aaron James (knee) are long-term absentees, while Wrexham’s other ex-Town attacker, Kieffer Moore, returned to action after a hamstring problem in the middle of last month.

Friday night’s match is the first of two between the sides in eight days with the Blues making a second visit to the Racecourse a week on Saturday in the Championship.

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