It’s been a frustrating summer for first-year professional Kai Nugent who, after shining through the first run of friendlies, found himself sidelined after rolling his ankle in the Gretna away fixture.
“He’s still doing his rehab,” manager Paul Simpson confirmed. “He’s a couple of weeks away to be honest with you. He isn’t fit.
“He’s out of the boot and he’s been doing work in the gym, so we'll just keep working with him. It’s a real shame for Kai because he was looking really lively, and this has just set him back a little bit.
“We also had Jack Robinson who went home ill yesterday [Friday], so he was absent with that. We sent him home so that he didn't spread it to anybody else in the club. I fully expect him to be available to train on Monday.
“Dan Butterworth had a little bit of what we think was just fatigue after the other night at Chorley, because of the lack of football work that he’s done.
“He has a little bit of soreness in his legs, the hamstrings, so we weren’t prepared to take any risks with that. He wanted to do the full training session with a view to being involved, but I wasn’t prepared to risk that.
“We need to make sure we manage him properly because he’s maybe three weeks behind everybody else in terms of the football work. He’s looked lively, and the challenge is for him to get himself fully fit so that he’s ready to come and affect games properly.”
