The ups and downs of United’s injury situation continued over the course of the last week with some edging closer to a return as others – Taylor Charters [hamstring] and Ryan Edmondson [shoulder] – went under the surgeon’s knife.
“I’m told that both operations have gone really well,” manager Paul Simpson confirmed. “Taylor had his surgery on Tuesday and Ryan had his on Wednesday.
“They haven’t been back into the club yet, they’re going through the recovery period back at home. We’re expecting both players to have a rehab time of 10-12 weeks, and they’re both desperately keen to do everything they can to get back as soon as possible.
“Taylor won’t be able to get on the grass for quite a while but Ryan can start coming in and doing some work, and keeping his legs going and his CV fitness up. I think that could be as early as next week.
“It’s a little bit more difficult for Taylor, but they’ll work with Chris, Geoff and Jamie and fingers crossed it’s a good recovery and they’re back with us soon.”
Picking up as they near a return are Ben Barclay and Omari Patrick, who are working hard at shrugging off ankle and hamstring injures respectively.
“Both of them have trained really well, they’re back into full training, and I didn’t expect that from Ben at this stage if I’m going to be honest with you,” he told us. “I thought we would still be at the stage of it being more moderate for him, and a reintroduction, but he’s got on with it.
“Omari has trained really well, and that’s through all of last week as well, so they’re both very close to coming into my thoughts. Omari is probably closer than Ben as we speak.”
On the two outstanding loan players from the first half of the campaign, he added: “Ben is staying with us, definitely. That’s why he’s working so hard, he wants to be involved.
“With Fin, I hope I’m not talking out of line here, but Forest have made an absolutely fantastic gesture to us and said that they will continue doing all his rehab, and we don’t have to pay his salary through the period while he’s injured.
“His loan will stay open and once he’s fit he can come back to us. We were in a position where we thought he was going to go, and that would have been the loan finished, but he will now be available for us once he gets fit.
“I’ve heard that his rehab has been really good, which doesn’t surprise me with him, so I can only thank Nottingham Forest for what is a fantastic thing to do from them.
“It massively helps us and what they’re saying is that they’re absolutely delighted with the way that we’ve looked after him and the way he's developed as a player.
“That can only be good for us that clubs are willing to let young players like him come to us and let us help and be part of that development.”
“Longer-term are Brennan Dickenson and Josh Dixon,” he concluded. “But it’s been good for Josh because we’ve had him out on the grass running. He’s starting to do much more.
“There’s also Jack Ellis, and he is still three or four weeks away, but he’s progressing and he did his first bit of running out on the grass today. Everybody else is fit and available.”