Lloyd Jones and Shilow Tracey remain doubts for Cambridge United’s trip to Rotherham United
Lloyd Jones and Shilow Tracey remain likely absentees for Cambridge United’s trip to Rotherham United in Sky Bet League One on Saturday (November 20).
The duo have been absent for the last few games, and do not seem any closer to a return to first-team action.
Centre-back Jones’ recovery from a groin strain has slowed.
“He is making good progress with the physios, but he hasn’t been out on the grass yet with us,” said United head coach Mark Bonner.
“He might be out today, we will wait and see. We will give that as long as possible, but he has near-on missed three weeks now so needs a bit of training time to build himself back up. He might not be available for the next few games, but we will have to see how that plays out today and the rest of the week.”
It is a similar story for winger Tracey.
“We will see how he is this morning,” said Bonner.
“He got a whack from the Northampton goalkeeper in the first round on his hip. The hip joint, hip bone, hip flexor all those sort of areas are quite tender and sore, and it’s really stopped him from doing anything really.
“We will see how that settles down over the next couple of days but, again, he hasn’t trained for a while now and he has not been close this week to being out on the grass.
“We will see what progress he has made, but that one looks unlikely as well.”
The U’s produced an impressive performance in midweek to beat Northampton Town 3-1 in the FA Cup, first round replay.
Bonner made four changes to the line-up that was beaten by MK Dons, and that included Jack Iredale lining up at centre-back so it would suggest there may be some squad dilemmas ahead to face Rotherham.
“I think every game is a selection headache really because you’ve got to pick a team that you think can be competitive,” he said.
“I think the reality of playing so many games in quick succession is that we haven’t played the same team twice in a row so we’re always aiming for freshness or there is a knock or injury that forces a change, or there is a suspension that forces changes.
“You always want to have decisions to make which is the players' job - to be good when they play, to earn the shirt and then to keep hold of it when they get it knowing that I’m going to make changes anyway.
“I will change winning teams, I’ve changed teams between games and I’ve done that consistently. The players know when they are in it, they may come out of it regardless and when they’re out of it, they may come back in it.
“There is a fair consistency to that process, but it’s just trying to get a freshness in the team.”
He added: “I wouldn’t class it as a headache, I would just say it’s options.
“We haven’t got huge options at the moment, but the ones we’ve got just mean you try to pick the right ones for each game in the hope that we can get two or three of the boys back fit to give ourselves a real headache because everyone is doing well and then we have some really big decisions to make.”
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