Town Head Coach Luke Williams sat down with the local media earlier today to give a fitness update on a number of players…
ON JORDAN STEWART AND JORDAN YOUNG:
“They came through it (Tuesday’s Development game away at Exeter City) well which was pleasing but they are not available yet and are not close enough to being involved with the first-team.”
ON RAPHAEL ROSSI-BRANCO:
“He played against Exeter and came out of it with a few symptoms and things aren’t all completely as they should be, but nevertheless he came through the game.
“Physically the game took a heavier toll on him than we would have liked.”
ON LLOYD JONES:
“Lloyd Jones trained with us today but we need to have a look at where he is because he’s spent a significant time off the pitch.
“I’ve got to be careful not to throw people in too early and have a reoccurrence and then lose them again for a longer period of time.”
ON MICHAEL DOUGHTY AND JON OBIKA:
“Saturday will be a bit too soon for Jon Obika but Michael Doughty could potentially be involved with the squad.
“But it is very, very early days for him.”
ON BRANDON ORMONDE-OTTEWILL:
“Brandon had a scan after what we thought were minor symptoms seemed to be hanging about for too long.
“The scan revealed that there is probably a more extensive injury than we first thought and a scan any earlier wouldn’t have made any difference because the healing time is exactly the same, the treatment was exactly the same but it was more peace of mind to know that it wasn’t something so minor that we couldn’t move on with it and scratching our heads.
“There is now a clear indication as to why it has taken him longer to recover.”
ON TOM SMITH:
“Tom Smith is still recovering and this weekend is a bit too early for him to be involved.”
ON JAMES BROPHY:
“James is undergoing a couple of tests to make sure that we don’t put him at risk again and put him on the pitch when there could be an underlying issue.
“Just recently he’s had a similar episode and he was tested then and everything came back negative, but of course you can’t ignore symptoms again so we need to try to find a different angle and see if we can get to the bottom of it.”
