By Chris Slavin
Cody McDonald is doubtful for the League One match at Rochdale on Saturday with the striker having picked up a foot injury.
Speaking during an update for iFollow, Simon Bassey said: "We are not too sure about Cody, we are waiting for a final diagnosis. He has a problem with his foot and we are waiting to see the results of that. We will know more later today or tomorrow morning."
Simon reported that Kwesi Appiah is being put through intensive fitness work at St George's Park, the FA's national football centre, to help with his recuperation from a hamstring injury.
"Kwesi is in his first week there and he is using facilities that we haven't quite got here," said Simon. "It is really good and intense work for him. It's hard here because we have 26 players to look after and he is there getting some really good one-on-one time for his fitness. We are not hoping for anything this season, but just to get him back in the best shape possible and fighting fit for next season."
Wimbledon earned a battling win against Oxford last week, the players digging deep to grind out a result, and Simon called for more of the same with Rochdale up next. Jon Meades was the unlikely match-winner on that occasion – and Simon wants to see other defenders chipping in with goals.
"Off the back of a good win last week, we are in a good frame of mind, and looking forward to another game with another chance to get three points," said our long-serving first-team coach. "We are in good shape. It's that time of the season when teams are under pressure for various reasons. I am not sure anyone cares how they get the three points. We have to be committed to every challenge that we face and if we do that we have a good chance of picking up points, whether that be with free-flowing football, or scraping something off a set-piece. I don't think anyone is too bothered about that.
"We've asked questions of them, not just lately, because we've not chipped in with enough goals from set pieces. 'Meadesy' is good in the air, he is brave, and he should score more from set pieces. it's something we've been trying to improve on as this season has gone on and it was nice to see a timely goal from 'Meadesy' to get three points for us. I'm not too sure it was a great finish, but they all count. Whether it's a 30-yard volley like Jake Reeves scored the other year, or a two-yard tap-in, they all mean three points, and that's the most important thing.
"Deji (Oshilaja) has great spring, Darius is aggressive, and we've managed to get first contact a fair amount of times, but we've not come up with the goals when we've needed them. It's certainly something we've been working on."
The full interview with Simon is available on our iFollow channel via the link above.