Shock of the week: Calvin Zola is not fit to face Port Vale tomorrow. Meanwhile Steve Schumacher looks set to come into the midfield.
Zola is still not quite over his ankle injury and having played just an hour of football since the beginning of February his absence from the team is to continue.
However, don’t stress, the big striker is ‘expected’ to return to full training next week with a chance of him making the squad for the trip to Morecambe. I wouldn’t put money on it though.
As we already know, Ashley Westwood, Carl Martin, Chris Stokes and Byron Moore are the four other absentees for tomorrow. Westy is starting his three match ban, Martin is finishing his, Stokes is out with a hamstring injury and Moore is out for the next few weeks with ankle ligament damage.
It leaves the door open for Matt Tootle to return to the side after losing his starting place to loanee Stokes. Toots will go straight back back in at left back.
Steve Schumacher is also looking for a return to the side. Having struggled to hold down a regular starting place recently Dario is ready to call on Schuey to bring a bit more quality to the midfield.
‘Steve is a player that can play above this level, I have no doubts about that. He has just struggled a bit to take off here, but if he can find a way to stay injury free he can be quite a player.
‘He certainly comes into consideration this weekend though, he has had a good week of training, and has been scoring a lot this week, hopefully that’s something we will see more of.’
Schumacher is expected to go into the side in place of the suspended Westwood and alongside James Bailey. Bailey was forced off against Notts County last week after taking a nasty knock to the head but seems to have made a good recovery over the past week.
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