By Chris Slavin
Neal Ardley has refused to rule out Kwesi Appiah playing again this season, but he said the main priority will be looking after the striker's long-term future.
Kwesi had an operation on his hamstring earlier this week and he received plenty of messages from Wimbledon supporters wishing him well in his recovery.
Speaking during an in-depth update for our iFollow channel ahead of the match at Milton Keynes, Neal said: "Kwesi had his operation on Tuesday and it went really well. There was a lot of scar tissue, it had not healed properly and they had to clean that away. He will have his leg in a brace for a couple of weeks to make sure he does not stretch his hamstring.
"Stuart Douglas and Kwesi have sat down to chat about it. If all goes well, there are certain targets they want to try and reach, including when he could be back in training and possibly back into the first-team. It might happen that he gets to those points right at the very end of the season, maybe with one game to go, or two games to go. He has set himself those little goals, but the main thing is that in the long-term we have a fit, ready player going forward."
Neal reported that Dean Parrrett has joined in training with the rest of Wimbledon's squad after recovering well from a groin operation, but he added that the midfielder still has some way to go before being considered for first-team action.
"Dean is back in training now with the group, but he kind of needs a mini pre-season. He is a little bit off it at the moment, so it is going to be tough. He needs to train hard, do extra work, and get a few games under his belt for Alan Reeves' U-23s. We cannot afford to have people not quite where they need to be for our games."
The full interview with Neal will be on iFollow shortly.