HEAD coach Paul James is hoping a sickness bug does not hamper Worcester Wolves’ hopes of progressing in the British Basketball League Cup.

Wolves take on Surrey Scorchers at the University of Worcester Arena tomorrow (4pm) aiming to secure their place in the semi-finals.

Influential forward Jermel Kennedy is set to return after illness forced him to miss the 91-84 victory at Manchester Giants last Sunday.

However, James revealed Alex Navajas has also been feeling sick in recent days and admitted he had his fingers crossed the rest of his squad do not get struck down.

“There has been a bout of sickness going through the team, so we are just trying to make extra sure nobody passes it on to anybody else,” James said.

“It’s just been a 24-hour bug that has been doing the rounds.

“Ashton (Khan) had it a couple of weeks ago and Alex has been suffering a little bit over the last few days but hopefully everybody will be fully fit and raring to go tomorrow.”

With Kennedy ruled out last weekend, Wolves travelled to Manchester with just seven players, including University of Worcester student Mark Jacob.

The 21-year-old is expected to feature again but James says he will have more players to choose from for their quarter-final clash.

“With Jermel back and then a couple of other students on the bench, we will have 10 players,” he said.

Wolves have won their previous 10 meetings against Surrey, including a 90-82 league victory last month, but James is anticipating a “very close-run game”.

“Right now, we are just trying to win the next game and that happens to be Surrey in the cup,” said James, whose side have just three victories from their first eight fixtures of the season.

“It is an opportunity to get to a semi-final but it’s going to be tough.

“Surrey are a solid team and we only really ran away from them in the fourth quarter when we played the last time, so I think it will be a very close-run game “But hopefully we will have enough in the tank to get the game won and move through to the semi-final.”

James added: “When you look at the league, it’s still not impossible but it’s a long way back.

“So this is an opportunity whereby if you win two games you can get yourself into a final.

“Surrey are beatable as we have proved but we also know that, if we don’t play the right way and focus, we can get beaten.

“But I think all the guys are going to be up for this one.”