Wilson hopes his inflicted Spireites will be fit and healthy for Bantams test

Sam Hird missed Monday’s game against MK Dons with the virus and several players have missed training sessions this week having also been struck down.

The Chesterfield boss, who has already had to contend with a remarkable number of serious injuries this season, is hopeful that the inflicted have all recovered by this afternoon.

“If it’s not one thing it’s another, the flu bug has taken its toll this last week or so,” he said.

“Hopefully by the time we get to 3pm we’ll have one or two of the boys feeling a bit better.

“It’s not ideal but we get on with it.

“We’ve had a good half a dozen who have not been available to train on certain days but they’re over the worst of it now.

“We’re not using excuses, we get on with it but there are valid reasons why certain people haven’t been available.”

Wilson has also confirmed that long term injury victims Tommy Lee and Dan Jones are nowhere near a return to first team action.

And Angel Martinez is still not ready for a full comeback, despite playing 90 minutes for the reserves in midweek.

He will take part in a friendly today against a Manchester City U18/23 side, while the first team are taking on a tough assignment in West Yorkshire.

Wilson is relishing the occasion at Valley Parade however.

“You’ve seen their squad, some of the big teams and the squads they carry, and how they’ve changed their team round in recent weeks and how it’s not affected them,” he said.

“It’s something we’ve come up against before, a very strong, experienced side going very well at this moment in time, buoyed by maybe 20,000 people.

“It will be fantastic, these are great games to go and play in.

“It won’t daunt us, I’m hoping we can put a team out that gives us a chance to win the game, which is what we do every week.

“When it comes to defending we’ll defend as a team and hopefully we’ll attack as a team.”

A lot of the pre-game talk has centred around Bradford’s lack of goalscoring prowess, despite their ability to play free-flowing, attacking football.

Wilson warns they’re still a dangerous outfit.

“You have to be guarded about everything, they have talent throughout the side,” he said.

“They’ve got areas where they can be game changers.

“They’ve just brought in another striker in Alex Jones.

“They’ve got the firepower there.

“They might not be firing on all cylinders but they’re still grinding results out, which is what it’s all about.”