Missing from the team sheet on Tuesday were midfielders Brennan Dickenson and Jon Mellish who, it was confirmed, had been added to the list of injuries picked up from the Salford away game – with Callum Guy, Rod McDonald and Joel Senior the others to have ended up in the treatment room following that fixture.
“We’ve got four long-term injuries, but Brennan is ok, I think,” manager Keith Millen told us. “We’re not quite sure, we’ll have to see how he is.
“Jon Mellish isn’t going to be long-term, hopefully, but the others are. That obviously has an impact, but we’ve got to deal with it.
“We’re hopeful that Jon and Bren are shorter-term, but we’re not quite sure whether they’ll be available for Saturday.
“Jon has a nerve issue at the back of his leg, I think he’s had it before, and it just didn’t settle down. If it carries on it might drag on to be weeks rather than days.
“Brennan had some swelling on his knee, we don’t know whether it was the pitch or contact, but that seems to have gone down quite well.
“The Salford game was a big blow in many ways, we picked up five injuries from that. When you’re up against things like this you’ve got to come out fighting.
“That’s why we need to get together and sort it out. There’s no days off now, you can’t ignore the situation we’re in and we’ve got to work hard to put it right.
“We’ve got enough bodies in there to deal with injuries, and it’s more now trying to generate some sort of togetherness, fight and spirit that we’re going to need from now until the end of the season.”
And with so many of the injuries being to the defensive unit, he commented: “We have to get on with it and deal with it. We’ve still got to defend properly as a team.
“If we’re not coping with the opposition then I have to look at it. We haven’t got loads of options at the back now. The Salford game has hit us hard with the injuries, but I’ve got enough players in there.
“I’ve got to go with the ones who are going to really fight to keep a clean sheet so we can build from that. I’ve got no worries about that, but first of all it’s about getting them to realise that we are in a fight.”
