Shrewsbury v Fleetwood: Steve Cotterill hoping Town are over worst of injury crisis
Steve Cotterill says he is proud of the way his players have battled through their injury crisis – and he hopes Shrewsbury are over the worst of it.
Town have been desperately unlucky with the injuries they have picked up this season, both George Nurse and Dan Udoh have ACL injuries which has ruled them out for the season.
Julien Dacosta and Aiden O'Brien have struggled to get over groin problems – and Elliott Bennett has been out since the start of November with a calf injury.
But with O'Brien returning to the matchday squad on Boxing Day, Dacosta training on grass and Bennett making good progress after another scan – it feels like Salop are close to having their squad back together.
"When you think about it, anyone of those five players could be playing in the team," Cotterill said about the players they have out.
"I don't mean they could be on the bench, they could be in the team on any given day.
"That is 50 per cent of your outfield players, so it is a credit to how the other boys have done and how they have all fitted in and how they have all adjusted and how hard they have worked in training.
"Without those five injuries, if you put those guys back into our squad at the moment, we are fine, we have no issues."
Town have been naming a couple of experienced players on the bench and the rest have been youngsters from their academy.
The boss will be keeping his fingers crossed they do not have any further setbacks – and he says it will be nice to have some senior men on the bench to call upon if needed.
"I want to I hope so," the boss said when he was asked if he sees light at the end of the tunnel on the injury front.
"Because without a doubt it has been hard work, for the lads as well,"
"Whilst they want to play, sometimes it does not do them any harm to have a break and a little sit on the bench on the odd moment to recharge their batteries and their mental state.
"We know we are not getting Dan back or George, but it would be good to have a stronger bench than some of the young lads.
"If you put the young lads on too early then you could end up losing them.
"We are not talking about young lads who come out of the U21s or the U23s we are talking about lads who have come out of the U18s.
"That is the issue, we don't really have anything in between really for them."
