Lee Brown returns to the squad for Saturday’s visit from Sunderland, but fellow defender Dan Csoka won't be available.
Our new left-back signed from Portsmouth had to miss the midweek defeat to Rotherham, but has recovered from a tight glute. Csoka was withdrawn at half-time against the league leaders and is ruled out of our second successive home game. Even though he was able to train on Friday, the Hungarian centre-back won’t be risked.
“Lee is looking better,” said Head Coach Mark Robinson. “He trained on Thursday and really well too. He’ll be back in contention. We’ve checked with Dan and he’s feeling better, but it was a situation at the time where you can’t take risks.
“Everything seems to have calmed down and we’re monitoring the situation at the moment. He’s resting and then we’ll look at it. He’s not available for Saturday unfortunately, but the main thing is that he is well and the situation has calmed down.
“Egli Kaja has had a little calf problem and was due to go for a scan, but he also won’t be involved on Saturday.”
There was better news concerning our trio of hamstring injury victims with striker Aaron Pressley perhaps the closest to making a return soon. The Scotland youngster came on for just over a quarter of an hour in Brentford B’s 2-1 defeat to Halmstads BK in a game out in Portugal earlier today.
“Brentford called me to get permission for Aaron to get some minutes,” said Robbo. “He should be back sooner rather than later. That should mean even more competition.
“Alex Woodyard has just had a scan and it’s all looking positive. He’s not ready yet, but it’s all going in the right direction. I’ll talk with Tim Maynard and check, but he’s probably going to be out for a few games yet.
“Henry Lawrence is going to be longer term, maybe three or four weeks. It’s a real shame, but at some point all of these players are going to have a part to play.”
Robbo remains confident that our first win since away at Accrington Stanley in early December will come soon and when it does things will turn - with 48 points still to play for.
“If you use this period in the right way, once it turns, you should come out of it for good,” said Robbo. “That’s the key. That’s what I’ve said to the lads. No one wants to go through this, but it can make you even stronger.
“We’ve got to turn it into wins now. Those small margins we’ve got to put in our favour. You don’t do that by relying on ifs and buts, refereeing decisions, or all those sorts of things. You’ve got to do it by continuously doing the right things, taking the brakes off in certain areas, and not being risk adverse in the right way. That’s what we’ll do."
Click on the link below to watch an extended interview with Mark Robinson, ahead of tomorrow’s visit from Sunderland, via our official YouTube channel.