Marcelino Nunez will return to the squad for Saturday’s Championship to Wrexham but Jaden Philogene has suffered a setback in his comeback, while a decisions is yet to be made on whether Wes Burns will make the trip to North Wales.

Nunez has been out since the Bristol City game a month ago due to an ankle injury, Philogene having suffered a knee problem against Blackburn a few days earlier. Burns picked up a hip issue in the draw with Preston at the end of January.

Quizzed on whether any of the trio would be back for the second visit in eight days to the Racecourse Ground, manager Kieran McKenna said: “Marcelino, yes. He’s recovered well and trained well all week.

“Jaden, no. Unfortunately, he’s had a little setback with his injury when he tried to train with the group.

“We’re not exactly sure on the timescale, but he won’t be available this weekend, and he’s had to take a step back, which is a disappointment. And Wes, we’re still waiting to decide and know for sure.”

Asked whether Philogene will be available for any of the upcoming seven games in 22 days, McKenna added: “We’d hope so. But look, it’s not trying to be vague, of course, sometimes you are because you don’t want the opponent to know, but it’s not a case of that.

“It’s an MCL injury that can be really tricky. It’s not a serious one, but the last stages of the rehab on those can be really tricky. We had it last year with Conor Chaplin and you can get to a certain point, you can get to almost training and non-contact training, but sometimes it can just catch you on the last bit and unfortunately it can run on longer than what you had hoped, and it’s really hard to prescribe in exact time.

“So, it’s a little setback this week, will shut down now for a few days. Hopefully start back up again next week and hopefully reintegrate as quickly as possible.”

Regarding Ashley Young, who suffered a hip injury in training towards the end of January, McKenna added: “Ashley’s recovering pretty well but not on the pitch yet and nothing other than what we spoke about.”

“It’s already been quite a few weeks and it’s going to be at least quite a few weeks more because he’s not running yet.

“But he’s chipping away at it and we’re hopeful we’ll have him back in the group at some point this season, and hopefully not at the very, very end of it.

“Over the next few weeks, let’s see how he keeps progressing and you do miss him every day he’s not on the training pitch, as much as he gives a lot round the building.”

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