Jaden Philogene is making progress from his MCL injury but still remains sidelined ahead of Saturday’s home game against Leicester, alongside Ashley Young and third-choice keeper David Button.

Forward Philogene, 24, has been out since mid-January having suffered a setback as he closed in on a return a fortnight ago. Right-back Young, 40, picked up a hip issue in training.

“Not much change,” McKenna said when asked about the injury situation. “I think the only two who are definitely not involved are Jaden and Ashley, and David Button has a little calf issue, but will hopefully be training next week.

“Jaden’s made some pretty good progress this week. He’s stepping up his ball-work and stuff like that but hasn’t full trained with the group yet, so not ready to be involved.”

Leif Davis was unusually on the bench for Tuesday’s 1-0 victory over Hull City, as he also had previously been for the defeat at Sheffield United in December, having missed the 2-0 win at Watford due to a knock above his knee with Jacob Greaves excelling at left-back in his stead in both those matches.

McKenna was asked whether Davis is still being hampered by the injury or whether Greaves’s form is allowing him to rest the former Leeds man when previously he might not have done.

“If I think back to the Sheffield United one, that was a little bit different if you’re talking about times when he’s been rotated or Jacob’s played. I think he was carrying a little injury at that point,” McKenna recalled.

“We have to make decisions on all the players every week and twice a week at the moment and there are so many games and we have to manage the group over the course of 46 games to get the right balance of freshness to try and protect from injuries.

“Touch wood, that’s been a big, big positive of the season and part of that with someone like Leif is that his output in the Swansea game was maybe there or thereabouts the highest he’s had with us in the three or four seasons he’s been with us in terms of his output.

“He had some muscle tightness on Monday and some muscle soreness, and another really tough game this weekend, another Tuesday night game coming up.

“And, of course, we have a couple of good options there because Ben [Johnson]’s played well there this season but Jacob having played there really well, sometimes you have to factor all these things into the decision and try and do what’s best for the next game but also for the group for the next few games and for a successful season.

“Leif got some minutes off the bench, which was enough after Saturday and he’s ready now for Saturday.

“He’s an important player and we’re going to need him to step up and deliver some big performances between now and the end of the season.”

He added: “High speed and sprints are his relevant number. With Leif’s type of player, it’s not so much about his total distance, that’s for the Marcelino [Nunez]’s of this work, but with a player like Wes Burns or Leif Davis or Kasey McAteer or Ivan [Azon], you’re always looking at their sprints and their high speed and how they react to that and how you manage that.

“There are very few who can do that Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday to their maximum output, so those are the players and those are the sort of metrics that you try and keep an eye on a little bit more to manage the group as well as you can.”

Chuba Akpom hasn’t started in the league since New Year’s Day, when he scored in the 2-1 victory over Oxford, but McKenna says the on-loan Ajax man will have a part to play before the end of the season.

“He’s had a good training week this week, to be fair,” he said. “We had a really good session on Wednesday after the Tuesday night game, which is more possible to do when you have a home game on the Tuesday night.

“That’s been a positive, not just for Chuba but for the other players in the squad who haven’t had minutes lately.

“Not just to speak about Chuba, it’s to speak about a squad of there or thereabouts 20 outfield players. We have good quality across all the positions, good experience across the positions and it’s really difficult to leave people out of the squad. It’s difficult when people don’t get as many minutes as you want to be able to give them.

“That’s one of the challenges of being a manager. If you want to have a good squad, you’re going to face some of those challenges.

“At the same time, I think everyone in the group understands the stage of the season that we’re at. This is the stage of the season where the full focus has to be on trying to get the performance the result in the next game.

“Everyone who is in the group has a part to play in helping us to get the next result by how they train, how they are in the group, how ready they are to come on and influence in the game.

“We’ve spoken about that lots with the group and I think in general the players have been good with that and they understand that the success of the team is the success of everyone in the group and if we are successful at the end of the season, everyone will benefit from that and we’ll share in that success.

“Of course, everyone wants to play and Chuba’s no exception. It’s a situation where he’s been a little bit unlucky with the timing of his injury. Before Christmas he was picking up some good form, before that point was starting some games in the league and scored in his last start in the league against Oxford.

“Then he missed a few weeks with injury and the other boys have had the match minutes and the sharpness in that time and now he’s back and it’s great to have him back. We know the quality that he can give us.

“He came on at Derby in a different role, he gave us extra goal threat off the left-hand side and we know the qualities that he has, certainly in his finishing and his playing in the final third that he can bring us in a number of different roles.

“I’m sure he’ll, hopefully, have some big moments and a part to play between now and the end of the season and it’s great to have his quality in the squad and we’ve got so many games so we’ll see when the opportunity comes but I really believe there’ll be some big moments and big goals from Chuba between now and the end of the season.”

Photo: TWTD