United’s squad heads into the weekend in a healthy position with just Zach Clough and Danny Devine – both heading towards a return to training – as players who can be found in the treatment room.
With an update at his Thursday morning virtual press conference, manager Chris Beech said: “We’re looking pretty good.
“It’s not ideal having three away games on the bounce, but it is what it is. We prepare correctly for it, and the good news is that everybody is feeling ok from the game on Tuesday.
“The players who didn’t play will be freshened up and we’re in good shape to face a team that is already looking in good form.”
“Zach is doing well, improving, so we’ll just have to wait and see where it is,” he added. “With players like him there’s always a possibility of being involved, they know their body, they’re a little bit older and wiser, and they know how they feel.
“You always leave the opportunity open for players like Zach but I’ve got to make sure he’s right before we look into that.
“It’s one where you can even leave it late. Leave it open, the door’s open. It was the previous week, but it was shut 10 minutes before kick-off. He’d trained three or four days prior to that game, so it was unfortunate it came back at that point, but no big deal.
“We’ll definitely leave it open and hope he can come back through the door that shut the previous weekend.”
And on Danny Devine, he commented: “He’s doing great. It’s pretty strange to have someone like Danny injured through a strong tackle that opened up his knee joint, because he’s someone who is generally robust and he doesn’t pick up muscle injuries.
“He’s running, he’s increasing his pace, but I think he will miss the weekend. I’m not sure about Port Vale for him, but he should be getting going at some part next week.”
