Liam Manning has confirmed Bristol City prospect Josh Campbell-Slowey will be out for a “little while” ahead of the Reds’ clash with Hull City having suffered a “really strange” quad injury.
The Robins are looking to extend their unbeaten run in the Championship and potentially climb into the top six when they welcome Ruben Selles’ Tigers to Ashton Gate on Saturday afternoon.
Hull currently sit 19th in the table, five points clear of Luton Town who occupy the final spot in the relegation zone. After a difficult start to the campaign, Selles’ side have won two of their last three Championship matches to put some distance between themselves and the bottom three ahead of their trip to the West Country.
While Campbell-Slowey is yet to make his senior debut for the Reds, he has been in and around Manning’s first-team squad, when fit, throughout the season so far. The defender returned to training last week following a calf injury but Chris Hogg confirmed ahead of City’s win over Millwall that the Robins were waiting for an update after he was forced out of a session.
The teenager was not included in the matchday squad for Tuesday evening’s win over the Lions and after the full-time whistle, Manning shed some light on his latest “unfortunate” setback.
“He’ll be a little while,” Manning told Bristol Live after the win over Millwall. “It’s a really, really strange one. He only trained for 15 minutes and felt his quad.
“He’s got a strain in his quad and is going to be out for a while. It’s really unfortunate because he’d done really well, I was really looking forward to having him back so to have that setback is really unfortunate.”
With Luke McNally’s season over after the former Burnley man suffered an ACL injury in City’s defeat to Swansea City last month, the Robins have been left slightly short of defensive cover. Zak Vyner and Rob Dickie are the only senior, natural centre-backs at Manning’s disposal but the likes of George Tanner, Haydon Roberts and Cam Pring are capable of filling in when required.
Another area of the pitch where City have appeared to be lacking options in recent weeks has been at striker. Following Fally Mayulu’s loan move to Sturm Graz in January, Sinclair Armstrong and Nahki Wells have been the two obvious options available to Manning while Sam Bell and Harry Cornick have featured from the bench.
Wells was ruled out of Tuesday evening’s trip to East London with what is understood to be a minor injury. Supporters were understandably concerned about the 34-year-old’s status given his importance to the side at this stage of the season. Fortunately, Manning is hopeful he will be fit to feature this weekend and also suggested Ross McCrorie shouldn’t be too far behind him.
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“We’ll get Nahki back hopefully for the weekend,” explained the head coach. “Then not long, around the end of the international break as well, hopefully, we’ll get Ross back as well.”
Following Saturday’s visit of Hull, the Robins are in action twice more before the international break. Manning’s side travel to Bramall Lane to face Sheffield United on Tuesday evening before welcoming Norwich City to Ashton Gate in front of the Sky Sports cameras on Friday evening.
City return from the break with a trip to Turf Moor on Saturday, March 29 which will kickstart the final set of fixtures up until the final day clash with Preston North End in BS3. While there is still an awful lot of football to be played and points up for grabs between now and May, the next month or so will likely determine whether or not the Reds book their place in the top six this season.