After recuperating from a thigh injury, ZAC Ashworth will be eligible for Wanderers’ trip to Port Vale.
Ian Evatt revealed that the on-loan West Brom defender will be in the squad for Saturday’s game, with Kyle Dempsey and Dion Charles also available after missing Manchester United’s Under-21s’ midweek thrashing.
Josh Dacres-Cogley has missed training because his partner Madeline gave birth to their first child, Leroux, on Tuesday evening.
The mother and boy are still in hospital, and Evatt said the winger would be given as much time as he needed before returning.
George Johnston (knee), Ricardo Santos (hamstring), Carlos Mendes Gomes (hamstring), Paris Maghoma (thigh), and Joel Coleman (calf) are remain out for the Wanderers.
“We came through unscathed the other night and Dion and Demps seem to have improved this week, which I guess is the first sign of positivity in a rough couple of weeks,” Evatt stated.
“We’ve talked about how this week will be all hands on deck to get through these three games with three positive results, and then the cavalry will be coming over the hill following the international break, which will probably come at a good time for us.”
“For now it is full focus on Port Vale on Saturday and then two very important home games.”
Port Vale began the season with a 7-0 thrashing at Barnsley, but have since rebounded admirably to get into the top six of the early League One table.
“Negative results can happen, you only have to look at us earlier in the season against Wigan – one-off, strange results, and that certainly was one,” Evatt stated.
“We know what’s going to happen with Port Vale, we know what’s going to happen there.” It may be a daunting environment at times; it is aggressive, and we know what is coming our way.
“We just have to deal with it and keep our sole focus on ourselves and our performance level.” Tuesday was fantastic; there was so much to appreciate. People may bemoan the fact that it was an Under-21s team, but that team cost a lot of money, qualified for the latter stages of that competition last season, and beat Stockport, a very solid League Two club.
“We did a lot of things right.” At the moment, it’s all hands on deck, and there are players playing with injuries, playing without the necessary recover because we don’t have cover, but that situation should change very soon.”
