Liam Manning has confirmed that Marcus McGuane will miss Bristol City’s clash with Coventry City this weekend having sustained a concussion in the Reds’ FA Cup defeat to Wolves.
City make the trip to the Coventry Building Society Arena on Saturday afternoon as they look to extend a four-match unbeaten run in the Championship and bounce back from their cup defeat at the hands of Vitor Pereira’s side last time out.
Goals from Rayan Ait-Nouri and Rodrigo Gomes ensured that Scott Twine’s excellent free-kick was little more than a consolation last time out as Manning’s side fell at the first hurdle in this year’s competition. McGuane started in midfield against Wolves but was withdrawn midway through the second half after he went to ground after a clash of heads.
Although Manning insists the former Oxford United man “is not too bad” he did confirm he would not be ready to face Frank Lampard’s Sky Blues. However, the Robins will be boosted by the return of Rob Dickie who has recovered from the illness that ruled him out of last weekend’s game.
“Rob’s been training this week so he seems to be over it and looks ok,” explained the City boss in his pre-match press conference. “He’s [McGuane] concussed so he will be ruled out for the weekend unfortunately.
“He’s not too bad. He’s going through the stages that you have to, to return to play so he’s ok.”
McGuane’s absence will leave City slightly short of depth in the middle of the park ahead of Saturday afternoon’s trip to Coventry, with Max Bird now likely to return to the starting line-up alongside Jason Knight at the base of midfield. The only obvious midfield option the Reds will have to name on the bench will be West Ham United loanee George Earthy who replaced McGuane against Wolves last weekend.
Supporters shouldn’t have to wait too long to see a midfield alternative return to the fold though, with Manning revealing that Joe Williams, and Sinclair Armstrong, are both back in training. Neither player is expected to feature at the CBS Arena however, with the Reds head coach admitting the Robins would have to carefully manage both of their returns.
“It’s possibly a little early for him,” Manning responded when asked if Williams would be fit to feature this weekend. “Sincs is similar, probably a little bit too early for the two of them.
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“The lads collect all the data, we have all the information, but I think there’s also a huge element of common sense. When you’ve got someone so explosive, so powerful and so quick that’s had the injury that he’s had, of course, you have to be a little bit careful. Again, he’s back training, but you also need to build up a level of volume with it. He’s someone that we’ll be sensible with, but at the same point, we want to win games now as well.”
With Kal Naismith and Mark Sykes both returning to the matchday squad for the FA Cup clash last Saturday, the treatment room at the Robins High Performance Centre appears to be emptying further with each passing week.
But Cam Pring may have to wait a bit longer before joining the rest of his teammates back on the training pitch. The left-back was forced off in Bristol City’s New Year’s Day draw with Plymouth Argyle with an issue that Manning suggested would see him sidelined for weeks.
Although the 39-year-old was reluctant to put a specific timeframe on when exactly the defender could step back on the Ashton Gate turf, he did admit that he is unlikely to feature again this month.
“He’s still going to be a few weeks,” Manning said. “Probably not in January we won’t see him.”