"We hope it's not going to be as bad as the last one. We hope he'll be available, but at the moment it's very sore and he could be a big doubt.

"He has a chance for Thursday but no more than that."

On the other hand, there are some big names playing for the Reserves tonight - the experienced Martin Petrov, Didi Hamann and Benjani are all in the team. I'm sure if they get fit we'll see some of them involved in the near future. Also youngsters Ryan McGivern, Vladi Weiss and Adam Clayton are playing, any of whom could be asked to fill in at some point. Based on Hughes' recent decision to stop McGivern going out on loan, there can't be much between him and Javi Garrido for back-up left back.