By Chris Slavin
Simon Bassey issued a positive update on Lyle Taylor's progress after his midweek injury setback and he is hopeful that the striker will be fit to play in Saturday's Emirates FA Cup tie against Lincoln City.
Speaking in a Thursday team news update for iFollow, our first-team coach said: "Lyle is okay and we are hoping he will be fit for Saturday. We will keep an eye on him, but he was out and about today, so we are hopeful that he will be fine."
Lyle was taken off with a calf injury five minutes before half-time on Tuesday night.
Though Jon Meades came through 72 minutes in that Checkatrade Trophy match against Luton Town in midweek, care is being taken with his return after such a long time out. Simon also added that the management team are awaiting the green light to step-up Kwesi Appiah's recuperation.
"Jon is a bit achy, but that is to be expected, as he put in a good shift the other night" said Simon. "We looked after him this morning and he was in the recovery group. He will get better, it might not be Saturday, but he will be back around the group putting in performances soon hopefully.
"Kwesi is injured, but he was due to see the specialist again today. We hope to increase his workload next week. He has been on the 4G machine running, but not putting his full weight on it (hamstring). He has been working hard on that and we hope to step him up next week. Fingers-crossed, he will be back training with the group sooner, rather than later. Dean Parrett had his operation and he is recovering at home at the moment. I think he is going to try to get a couple of days away before he can come back to start working. He is a long-term one, probably Christmas, but outside of those players we are okay."
The full interview on our iFollow channel includes Simon talking about his FA Cup memories at Wembley in 1988 and about preparations for taking on Lincoln this Saturday.