A ‘freak’ ankle injury will see Sean Longstaff miss tomorrow’s game at Anfield, but there’s some hugely promising news on the fitness front elsewhere.
Steve Bruce has confirmed that Allan Saint-Maximin, Matt Ritchie and Andy Carroll are all making great progress, while Miguel Almiron also looks set to play tomorrow – despite his late return from international duty.
His comments regarding Ritchie and Saint-Maximin are perhaps the biggest surprises, however, with it now suggested that the former could return at Leicester in two weeks time (despite being initially ‘ruled out’ for 2 months!) and that the latter is now ‘in contention’ to feature against Brighton next Saturday (despite reports yesterday that his ‘earliest’ return date would be mid-October!).
As for Dwight Gayle, Bruce states that he’s been given a period of ‘complete rest’ after his calf injury continues to get no better.
Here’s what Bruce has had to say on the fitness front:
“It’s still a bit early for Andy Carroll and Allan Saint-Maximin, but they’ve made big progress this week.
“Andy’s away to see a specialist this afternoon. Touch wood. He’s delighted with how it’s gone so far.
“With Allan, we’re erring on the side of caution. He could be involved against Brighton.”
“Matt Ritchie’s been quite remarkable in his recovery – he’s shocked us all. We weren’t expecting to see him for a couple of months, but with the way he’s trained yesterday and the day before – as long as there’s no reaction – I don’t think he’s too far away.”
“Almiron was back yesterday. We’ll see how he is today but it looks as though he’s recovered (from travelling) after seeing him yesterday.”
“(Gayle) We’ve had scan after scan and specialist after specialist. We just can’t seem to get to the bottom of it so it’s now complete rest.”
Bruce also said this to Sky Sports when asked about Andy Carroll’s progress:
