Tuesday night’s Cumberland Cup second-round meeting with Bransty Rangers could see a first outing since the beginning of September for fit again Jamie Devitt, who is raring to go following a thigh injury that could well have ruled him out for longer, had the scan results been less favourable.
Some innovative treatment (injections into the quads, no less) coupled with a bucket load of hard work have brought him to the brink of a first team return, with the midweek fixture an important next step.
“He’s been fine in training,” gaffer Paul Simpson confirmed. “He’s done all the work to get to a level where he’s able to come back in with us.
“We now need to manage his workload to make sure he’s right to play on Tuesday night, get whatever we can. If it’s 60 minutes we need to make sure it’s a good 60.
“There are a few lads who need games. We’ll see on Monday, make a definite decision, but hopefully we’ll have maybe four or five first-team group players who’ll be able to get ourselves through to the next round of the county cup.
“I want to have the right training group on Tuesday so not all of the players who are on their way back will play. Jamie Devitt will, he needs time on the pitch, but we’ve got a little bit of an issue with Gabe Breeze at the moment.
“He has a slight injury so if he isn’t available Mick Kelly will go in goals. We’re just going to have to wait and see. We’ll count everybody on Monday, we’ll look at how the group that trained on Saturday morning got on, and then we’ll make our decision.”
