Paul Tisdale is hoping to soon have options on his substitutes bench, as some of his injured players edge closer to fitness.
Baily Cargill and Jordan Moore-Taylor have returned to the fold in recent games while Ben Reeves is edging closer to a comeback after his injury lay-off.
“It will be great news to have them back because it gives me options on the bench,” Tisdale said in his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to Bristol Rovers.
“We have players coming back from injury who are not yet ready to play 90 minutes. You cannot play a whole host of those because you can only make three substitutions – that’s not taking into account that you might get an injury, a red card or something else that requires you to make a change.
“When picking a team, you need at least eight players who can play 95 minutes and you’d be on a tightrope if you could only pick eight because that takes up your three substitutes. Ideally, you want nine or 10 players who could play 95 minutes. We haven’t got many of them, at the moment.
“There is soon to be a real conundrum in terms of the bench because we will have a number of players who are not quite right to start a game, but are fit now to be a substitute. Ben Reeves will come into that category soon, just like Baily Cargill and Jordan Moore-Taylor, who are on their way back.”
Tisdale confirmed his pre-match press conference that striker Kieran Agard remains sidelined along with Joe Mason, Rhys Healey and Sam Nombe. There was no update on midfielder Jordan Houghton, who has missed the last two games.
