Thursday afternoon’s press conference gave boss Keith Millen an opportunity to bring a further update on the recently injured, with midfielder Joe Riley an obvious area of interest.
“It was good news in a way on Joe that there was no structural damage,” he told us. “It’s more a case of ligament problems.
“It will be weeks instead of months, but it certainly isn’t days. It could have been a long time, so it was positive in a way. It’s just a case of what pain allows, but it will be a few weeks.
"We can't be more specific because that’s what the medical team have said – it’s almost week by week, how quickly it can improve. They can’t really say how quickly it can improve, how quickly does he heal, his pain threshold, because of where it is.
"The good thing hopefully is he can do some running or physical work – it’s not like he has to stay off his leg. When it settles down hopefully we can do some physical work with him so when he does get the all clear, he should be pretty fit."
“Brennan trained today so it’s a case of waiting to see if he has any reaction,” he added. “If he can train tomorrow, hopefully he gets through that and is available on Saturday.
“With Scott [Simons] away it means Gabe will step up to the bench. Magnus Norman is improving quickly, and I’m really pleased about that.
“He’s training, he lacks sharpness obviously, but he’s looking fit and healthy. He’s not quite ready for Saturday but that gives someone else the chance to be on the bench.
“It will be a great experience for Gabe.”
“Other than that there’s a couple of knocks and a few tired legs,” he commented. “We changed the environment today and took them to the pool and gym, the pitch was a bit frozen here, so we took them somewhere else.
“They enjoyed themselves, they did a recovery session in the pool and on the bikes at the Everlast Gym, so it was a good session.
“We obviously don’t want the players getting hurt or injured. I look at the surfaces and see what we can do.
“I don’t like going on astroturf close to a game, but I don’t mind it early in the week. We were limited today, but we didn’t need to do much, it was all about recovery.
“It’s important we get on the grass tomorrow so we can do some tactical work.”
