WORCESTER City hope to have four players back from injury for the visit of Long Eaton United tomorrow (3pm) – but boss John Snape has a defensive headache.
On top of George Forsyth joining Stourbridge, new signing Levi Andoh pulled his hamstring in training on Tuesday and is set to miss two to three weeks.
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Dual-registered centre-half Tom Fishwick will link up with Southern League Premier Division Central outfit Stratford Town this weekend but at least Snape has some heartening news from the treatment table.
James Baldwin, Jamie Smith and Joel Caines should shake off persistent problems in time to return for the Midland Football League Premier Division clash with goalkeeper Matt Gwynne available again after suffering concussion a week and a half ago at Romulus.
“Levi’s injury was a real blow after a promising run out for the reserves at the weekend,” said Snape.
“We were keen to run the rule over him as one for the future. Tom Fishwick will be with Stratford at the weekend but hopefully we will see the return of James Baldwin and Jamie Smith.
“Joel Caines has trained this week as well so we have three players who are a massive part of our squad that have been missed for a number of weeks now. Matt is fit for action after that knock to the head too.
“With them coming back the squad is still strong despite George going. Don’t get me wrong, it still has a lot to learn and the fact we have lost three skippers this season is not lost on us.
“Our job as a management and scouting team is to out and find local talent that can replace the likes of George, Jordan Stoddart, Tyler Weir and Dave Reynolds if he does not want to come back.”
The absences could have a domino effect for the City players dual registered elsewhere such as Jamal Lawrence and Riley Keasey who have been turning out for Black Country Rangers recently.
“We have had glowing reports about Riley, he scored on Tuesday against Bilston and is hopefully where we want him to be,” Snape added.
“We have three games in eight days including the friendly with the RAF (Tuesday, 7.45 at Pershore Town) and will rotate the squad. With the relationships we have with Black Country and Malvern, people can always get games.
“I want people to go and get minutes. It works both ways, their confidence goes up and they realise what they have at Worcester and want to get back in.
“Players will go out for that purpose and hopefully one or two faces might come in over the coming days and weeks.”
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