Shrewsbury Town awaiting scan results on Elliot Thorpe's back

Thorpe missed out on Salop’s trip to Leeds on Wednesday night through injury and he had a scan on his back on Thursday with the club now awaiting results.

Bennett missed Town’s League One opener against Cheltenham and their Carabao Cup game in Yorkshire after having his appendix removed.

But Matt Taylor has confirmed he has trained over the last few days and he will travel with the squad to Stevenage.

“Good,” he replied when asked how Bennett’s recovery was going.

“He trained Friday. He trained Thursday. We are hopeful that he can travel down with us as he is a massive part of the squad.

“Not only is he an extremely experienced footballer he is a great man and he understands what it means to play for this football club as a lot of the boys do.

“A lot of the boys look up to him, hopefully we can name him in the squad.”

Chey Dunkley returned to the squad at Elland Road on Wednesday too after missing all of pre-season with an Achilles injury.

But he is back now and ‘desperate’ to be involved according to Taylor.

He continued: “Chey is desperate to be back involved and he is and he will be. With him being named captain it is imperative that he is in and around the group.

“He will be in the squad for Saturday so we are hopeful that as and when he is needed he is ready.

“What we do not want to do is break the players. There is a process in which they have to undertake to get back to fitness. Chey is well on the way to doing that.

“It is great to have him around the group but we are lucky that we have quite a few captains in and around the squad.

“They are really good around the young player so we are fortunate to have such good seniors that care about the young boys.”

Max Mata’s work permit still has not arrived, but things are progressing in the right direction.