Rob Edwards revealed that Amari’i Bell will be unavailable for Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace with a hamstring injury and that Elijah Adebayo and Sambi Lokonga are still not quite ready to make a return to action.
Bell limped off in the opening minutes of last week’s 3-2 defeat to Aston Villa and the manager says it could be a lengthy spell on the sidelines for the Jamaican international.
On Adebayo and Lokonga’s progress, the boss said: “It’s frustrating because they don’t feel quite right yet. I don’t want to say we’ll have them ready for Bournemouth because I don’t want to get their, or anyone else’s, hopes up.
“They’ve been on the grass and we’re trying to push but we don’t want to be in the situation where we push them and they come back and then they pick up another injury and they’re out for a longer time. That’s the conundrum.”
Edwards also said Joe Johnson will be unavailable as he recovers from a bout of glandular fever but the boss may be able to call upon Gabe Osho.
“It’s been a muscular problem with Gabe and we’re giving him as much time as possible for Saturday. It’ll be a calculated risk if we chose to involve him.”
Meanwhile Tahith Chong is fit to feature having trained all week despite taking a knock last weekend, while Mads Andersen is making progress back home in Denmark in his quest to return to fitness.
Edwards also had praise for Daiki Hashioka following his cameo in central defence against Villa.
“He’s been great this week,” said the boss. “It was good for Hashi to get minutes against two of the best teams in the division and we’ve seen he’s capable of playing in four of five big slots in defence.
“He’s definitely really and he seems physically and mentally gauged for what we want from him.”
