It was mixed news from manager Stuart McCall on Thursday, as he revealed Funso Ojo is in contention for a return to the squad at Bradford City and George Thomas is available after coming off at Doncaster last week, but Josh Morris will miss the next two months.
There are also one or two further doubts ahead of the trip to take on the Bantams this weekend.
Ojo has recovered from a hamstring injury, while Thomas has trained for much of the week following a dead leg.
Morris will be out until at least mid-February though with a fractured fibula and strained ankle ligaments.
McCall told iFollow Iron: “On the plus side, Funso is back available, has trained all week and looked good.
“George is fine. It is what we thought after the game, where it’s a dead leg. It was after someone else’s knee went into his. It started bleeding inside the muscle and just tightened up so he couldn’t continue. He’s trained most of the week and is fine and raring to go.
“Unfortunately for Josh and unfortunately for us as a club it’s not good news. He has fractured his fibula down the side and also strained ankle ligaments. He’ll be out for a minimum of two months and is in a boot at the moment, and on crutches.
“It’s really disappointing for Josh, who was out for six weeks with a fractured jaw recently, and then there’s now this – which was also innocuous. I originally thought it was a challenge he did in the early part of the first-half, but it wasn’t that. It was in the second-half, when we was running to get into the box, and he just planted his foot and felt the pain.
“We’ve been really unlucky with injuries this season, but especially innocuous ones – ones which aren’t muscle injuries. It was such a freak accident. We wish Josh a speedy recovery and we need him back sooner rather than later, but unfortunately he will be out for two months.
“We’ve got a couple of other little niggles but that’s what football is about, you try and get through them. We’re focused on going and putting in a performance on Saturday.”
With his former club Bradford in the bottom four and United sitting just outside it, McCall knows the importance of a positive result at the Northern Commercials Stadium.
He added: “They’ve picked up a little bit but myself, as the manager, and the coaching staff have to try and help the players. We’re looking to improve them and to cut out the errors we’re making. That’s in every way – tactically and technically. The mental aspect is such a big part of football nowadays. The confidence isn’t oozing out of the players but likewise we’re not on the floor.
“We went into the Doncaster game last week with a gameplan, started off reasonably well but then were two goals down inside ten minutes. The concentration levels have to be better and we must cut out the individual errors that are killing us.
“We can’t get a grip of the game and get our noses in front at the moment, and then we’re losing another quickly so that has to stop as well. It’s not my job to lambast the players each day, but to improve them and try to get the best out of them. We know we have to improve results but to do that we have to improve performance. A little while ago we were getting sevens and eights out of them, now it’s five and sixes. We need a result to spring us into action and hopefully we can get that at Bradford.”
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