Russ Penn updates on injuries, illness and the FA Trophy at AFC Fylde…
By Matty Paddock - 15/12/2022
Posted 3 years ago
RUSS Penn has confirmed skipper Shane Byrne is back available for selection ahead of Saturday’s FA Trophy trip to Fylde.
The influential midfielder has been out of action for Harriers since a back injury forced him to sit out the Darlington game in early November.
That issue appears to have settled down now and, with a full week’s training under his belt, the boss says Byrne should be in contention at Mill Farm for the Third Round clash.
Penn also said there has been ‘good news’ for Nat Knight-Percival and Alex Penny, both longer-term injury absentees, over the last few days.
“He’s trained all week which is great,” Penn said of Byrne.
“It’s good, and Nat Knight-Percival and Alex Penny have had some good news, so those two shouldn’t be too far away either.
“Along with a couple of lads we’re trying to bring in, hopefully we’ll have a good, competitive squad going into January.”
Illness has hammered the Harriers squad over the last ten days or so – Krystian Pearce and Joe Foulkes missed the Chester defeat with a bug which later hampered much of the rest of the camp.
Penn added: “Overall, I think it was eight people, me included, it wiped me out.
“It’s just going round and it’s that time of year, fortunately there are a lot more players coming back than there are going out, so we need a clean bill of health.
“We get through Saturday, and we have another seven- or eight-day break going into Hereford, then we can really hit the second half of the season hard.
“We need to, and we’re going to put pressure on ourselves on a game-by-game basis.”
Two players who’ve enjoyed their final action in a Harriers shirt are on-loan duo Tom Billson and Paddy McLaughlin.
They’ve returned to Coventry and York City respectively after their temporary stints ended during this week.
Penn said: “I just want to thank them for their efforts really – they’ve come to the club in a difficult situation and in difficult circumstances.
“We’ve played a lot of games so hopefully they’ll benefit from that.”
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