Wycombe Wanderers head coach Mike Dodds has provided an injury update on three players ahead of this weekend’s Thames Valley derby with Reading.
Striker Bez Lubala, winger Kieran Sadlier and fullback Finn Back have missed large portions of the season and are expected to miss the clash between the two clubs at Saturday lunchtime.
Back, who joined on a permanent contract from Nottingham Forest in January, has only played one game for his new side.
This came in the 2-0 win over Bristol Rovers on February 18, where he started the fixture but was withdrawn after 67 minutes.
Lubala has been absent since the 1-1 draw at Peterborough United where he played the final 15 minutes, whilst Sadlier hast not featured in any capacity since the start of October.
His last outing was as a stoppage-time substitute in Wycombe’s 1-0 home victory against Crawley Town before he had an operation on a hernia.
He has since missed Wanderers’ last 36 games in all competitions.
Dodds said: “Fin and Bez are back in light training and they’ll be back in the group sooner rather than later.
“Kieran Sadlier has been training with the group and is looking sharper.
“I had a conversation with Sads earlier in the week as he has had a significant time out as we’re at the stage of the season where games are in the balance and have a lot of pressure.
“It’s just about getting the balance right.
“He’s only back been in training for about a week so he’s not a million miles away.”
The Chairboys will make the short journey to Berkshire on Saturday lunch time off the back of picking up seven points from their last three games as they continue to push for a spot in the League One automatic places.
They currently sit third, three points behind Wrexham but the Adams Park side do have a game in hand, which is against Huddersfield Town next Tuesday.
Speaking ahead of the derby, Dodds added: “It’s a really important game in terms of our journey between now and the end of the season.
“The emotions from Tuesday night are now seeping away as we know we should have won [against Shrewsbury].
“But we can’t dwell on it as there were many positives and we need to take that into Saturday.
“These are the games that we as a club want to be a part of, so we won’t be running away as we know we have got the quality to do that.
“We just need to take the hand break off and I do believe we don’t fear anyone going into these last few games.
“I have a 100 per cent belief in this group.”
