Lincoln City go into this evening’s game against Huddersfield Town with no fresh injury concerns, according to Michael Skubala.
With nine games to go, keeping the squad as fit and fresh as possible is paramount, and the game against Huddersfield could be another step towards the Championship if we can match Bolton’s result. Even a draw at a stadium we’ve yet to register a league win in would be good, but to get that, we need to be fresh.
We’ll be without a handful of players, as we know. James Collins is one who is out long term, and a couple of the others are also still some way away from the first team picture, as Michael revealed in his pre-match interview.
“No fresh ones.” he said when asked about the injury situation. “No new ones. Josh Honohan, he’s a couple of weeks away. Jacko’s still working really hard in the gym, he’s quite a bit of time away.”
One player who has been missing for a few weeks is Freddie Draper and Michael says that situation is one we’re ‘not sure’ about, which sounds decidely ominous in terms of seeing him again this season.
“Freddie is still a couple of weeks away if you like, we’re not sure about that one, that’s a bit unknown again.”
There are also players on the brink of fitness who haven’t featured in recent weeks, and they’re reported to be ‘training hard’ for a place on the bench.
“We’ve got lads waiting in the wings like Oscar Thorn who’s training very hard,” added Michael. “Erik Ring that everybody knows about, who’s training very hard, and Kamil (Conteh) who’s come in and not started for us yet but is training very well.
“We’ve got fresh bodies there if we need them, but everybody’s united together and ready for the next task at hand, which is going to be a very difficult game.”
Michael was also asked about the stability of the defence, given that we have had very few changes to it since the run began, and again, he brought the team depth into the conversation.
“One thing when you talk about a run like we’ve been on is that it needs more than 11,” he said. “We’ve had players injured through that and we’ve had players that have done very well for us in parts of the group who are now injured.
“So it doesn’t matter which way you look at it, you need a group. You need to make changes, you need to freshen things up, but you also need them to perform. That’s what this group has done magnificently so far, when they’re called upon they do the job.”
Tomorrow night, City are likely to make changes to the side that beat Stockport. One would imagine Adam Reach will come in for Ryley Towler, through no fault of Ryley’s, and perhaps Ryan Oné may find himself on the bench, with Ben House likely to come into the starting line-up.
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