Iron assistant manager Ned Kelly has confirmed that Liam O’Neil will be in line to make his debut for the club against Crawley Town on Saturday.
The midfielder arrived on loan from West Brom last week and will travel down to Sussex with the squad this weekend as United look to record their third away success on the trot.Kelly was pleased to get the 21-year-old through the door and believes Scunthorpe are fortunate to have hin.
He told The Iron Player: “Liam has settled in well.
“He’s only been in for a couple of days training wise so he’s getting used to everybody, getting used to what’s in the squad and how we’re trying to do things.
“He’s a good player. I’ve seen a lot of him as has the gaffer and the rest of the staff.
“West Brom think very highly of him so we’re fortunate to get him.
“He’s another loan player that we’ve brought in and he’ll be travelling with us on Saturday.”
O’Neil was recruited to cover for the loss of Isaiah Osbourne, who looks set to miss the next few matches with the hamstring injury that forced him to be substituted at Forest Green.
The youngster rose through the ranks at Albion and Kelly admitted that there were a number of clubs interested in signing him.
“He’s a good player on the ball, he makes good forward runs at the appropriate moments, he’s good in the tackle and technically very good,” the assistant boss continued.
“We’re very pleased to get him.
“There were a lot of other teams that were quite interested in him so it was pleasing that the gaffer was able to get Liam to come.”
Osbourne’s injury means he will be out of action for at least a couple of weeks but Kelly stated that the former Aston Villa player is working hard to return as quickly as possible.
And whilst admitting that it’s disappointing to lose any player, Kelly does feel that there are more than enough bodies in the squad to cover for Osbourne’s absence.
He added: “Ozzie’s got a problem with a hamstring and we’re not expecting him to be back for at least a couple of weeks.
“But he’s had that type of injury before and he ensures us that he can get back quite quickly.
“It’s disappointing for Ozzie but he’s working very hard with the physio to get back on the training ground.
“Liam will come in, Sean (McAllister) is there, Spadge (Matt Sparrow) is there and Terry (Hawkridge) is there so we’ve got other numbers as well and we’ll use the whole of the squad.”
Elsewhere, Kelly also said that Luke Williams “should be okay” to feature at the Checkatrade.com stadium this weekend after bruising his foot during training on Tuesday morning.