With a couple of injuries picked up in defence over the last week, United manager Russ Wilcox has confirmed that it could be an area he’ll look to strengthen.
Marcus Williams, Eddie Nolan, Luke O’Neill and Miles Addison have all suffered knocks recently, adding to the number of Iron players that have been forced to spend time on the side lines since the season began.Football League teams are permitted to make emergency loan signings when the window re-opens next week and having seen O’Neill return to parent club Burnley, Wilcox admitted he could look to add to his squad.
When asked about the possibility of bringing another defender in on a temporary basis, he told The Iron Player: “I think so - if it’s bad news on Luke then I think it has to be a possibility.
“He’s a Burnley player and he’s gone back there to be assessed so we’re just waiting for a phone call regarding the extent of his injury.
“We’ve got Luke for 93 days so we’re hoping it’s just a short term injury.
“If it’s a long term injury, which most of them seem to be at the moment, then we might have to go into the loan market when the window opens again next week.”
The boss is yet to discover the extent of Addison’s injury but should know more once he has been properly assessed by the medical team at his parent club, Bournemouth.
Wilcox is relatively happy with his options in central defence and stated that if he is to bring another player in, it will most likely be a fullback.
“Miles has gone back down to Bournemouth to be assessed by their physio Steve Hard,” he continued.
“They’ll go through the procedures that they need to do because he’s a Bournemouth player and that’s how it has to work.
“We know he’s not going to be with us short term but we’re hoping it’s not a lengthy injury and hopefully we can bring him back to our football club further down the line.
“I think centre-half wise we’re pretty covered.
“We’ve brought Andrew Boyce back from Grimsby and we’ve also got Luke Waterfall still out at Macclesfield who we can call back at any time.
“Obviously we’ve still got Callum Howe in the building as well so I think we’re fine in that area but the right back spot is a concern.”
Williams remains a doubt for the weekend after missing the midweek game with a hamstring injury.
Irishman Nolan has missed the last two games but looks set to be available for selection again as Scunthorpe prepare to face Bristol City this weekend.
Meanwhile, Wilcox revealed that he has no other fresh injury concerns ahead of the trip to Ashton Gate.
He added: “Eddie hopefully should be okay.
“He trained fully on Thursday and we’ve done some extra work with him as well regarding the heading side of it.
“He should be fine unless he gets a reaction to the work we’ve been doing on the training ground but that looks unlikely so that’s really positive news.
“Other than the injuries we already know about, everybody else is fine.
“We had a good session on Thursday but it was fairly light for the lads that have played all the games so far.
“Saturday’s game will be the ninth game in four weeks for the likes of Niall Canavan and Neal Bishop which is a big ask so credit to them and we’ve got to make sure we keep them fresh.
“We’ve had a good session, an enjoyable session but the focus has to be towards Saturday and making sure we go there fresh which hopefully we should be.”
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