Wes Burns will miss Friday night’s FA Cup fourth round tie at Wrexham along with Marcelino Nunez and Jaden Philogene, who have continued their recoveries, with Ashley Young out for a few weeks, but Dan Neil will make his full debut and Somto Boniface and perhaps Tudor Mendel will both be in the squad at the Racecourse Ground.

Burns limped off with a groin problem during last week’s 2-1 win at Derby County and McKenna says the Welshman won’t face the Rad Dragons, although with the injury not a significant one.

“Wes won’t be involved tomorrow,” the Blues boss said. “Hopefully not serious, but from the little issue he had last week. He hasn’t trained this week.

“Same plans with Marcelino and Jaden, they will return to full training with the group at the start of next week.

“They’ve both trained a little bit this week but neither will be involved in the game. Hopefully we’ll have them for the game next week.”

Regarding Young, who has missed the last three matches with a hip issue suffered in training, McKenna said: “He’s progressing, he saw a specialist over the last couple of weeks and thankfully the news wasn’t as bad as it could have been, so we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to get him back with the group.

“It’s hard to put an exact timescale on that, but certainly it’s hopefully not a matter of months and months and months.

“He’s progressing well and it’s hopefully it’s more weeks than months before he can start to resume some training and it will be really good to have him back with the group.

“I have to say, he’s still been fantastic with the group off the pitch, in the dressing room, before the games, at half-time, before the games he has a big, big impact, but you do miss his presence around the training sessions as well and, of course, he’s someone who can contribute on the pitch.

“He’s still contributing well behind the scenes but hopefully we’ll have him back in full training in a matter of weeks not months.”

McKenna confirmed that Dan Neil will make his full debut, while he will name a new skipper with Dara O’Shea not having been involved in cup games and Young unavailable.

“He showed his experience first and foremost to be able to come in to a context like that, 1-1 away from home, and not be phased by it,” McKenna said regarding the on-loan Sunderland midfielder.

“That’s obviously one of the bonuses that he brings us and he showed some good quality in getting the ball.

“It’s early days for him at the club and it’s well known that he hasn’t had so many minutes this year and tomorrow night’s a great chance to build those minutes up and build those relationships on the pitch, so we’re looking forward to seeing him play.”

The Blues boss confirmed at least one U21s regular will be on the bench: “Somto Boniface will be in the squad, he’s been doing really well, is training with us every day at the moment and progressing all the time, so he’ll definitely be in the matchday squad.

“Tudor has also been with us as well this week and we’re waiting to see on a couple of players availability-wise, so it’s not impossible that he could be involved.”

Photo: Matchday Images