Defender pushing for Chesterfield return while team-mate suffers injury
Fit-again full-back Tom Pearce could be back available for Chesterfield this weekend but another player has been side-lined by injury.
Manager Paul Cook delivered the good and bad news ahead of tomorrow’s trip to Oldham Athletic which offers a chance to put a win on the board after back-to-back home draws with Gillingham and Barnet.
Pearce hasn’t played since the final game of last season, the League Two play-off second leg at Notts County, and will offer another option at left-back.
Two more players who haven’t see any action this season, midfielder Dylan Duffy and goalkeeper Zach Hemming, aren’t far behind in terms of a return, the only snag being the fresh injury.
"We had the disappointment yesterday, which will come out eventually, that one of our lads has picked up quite a serious injury in training, which is really disappointing,” said Cook. "That will add a little bit to the injury list.
"Tom has done two or three days’ full training with us now and is back up to full speed, which is brilliant. Dylan Duffy is very close to getting back on the grass, which is also brilliant, and we should have good news on Zach imminently.”
Even though the other injury absentees, Ruel Sotiriou and particularly Will Dickson, are further back in terms of recovery, Cook now has better numbers to choose from in attacking positions in latest arrivals Kiano Dyer, Joel Randall and Louie Marsh, those two fresh from their goals in last week’s 3-3 draw with Barnet.
He added: "We feel we have a good transfer window obviously with the flair players. Not having Sotiriou, Duffy and Dickson has been tough because we didn’t have any in-game changes.
"Now we have some exciting players in the building without a shadow of a doubt. A couple of them aren’t up to speed in terms of match fitness, like Joel Randall, who came on and had a great effect for us last Saturday, but each week it will grow. It is a time thing of getting players up to speed properly and within that we have to pick points up.
"Going into next week, Joel will get strong minutes (in the EFL Trophy against Manchester City U21s) and so will Kiano. We can go on and on.
"But my focus is on tomorrow. It’s a really good game and a really good game for ourselves and for Oldham.”