Team News: Barnsley

Vladimir Ivić said to expect the likes of Will Hughes, Andre Gray and Troy Deeney to play some part in the coming games before November’s international break, starting with Saturday’s clash at Oakwell.

Of these three, only Deeney has made a league appearance so far this campaign but all have now returned to training with the group ahead of the trip to Barnsley.

“In these three games the players like Will Hughes, Andre Gray, Troy Deeney will be available to maybe play some minutes,” he said.

“I believe that we will have more players in the next games because some who stayed out because of injury are with us in the last few days, they worked full practice with the team. Now it depends on their condition, but I am sure some will be in the squad for the next game.”

The Head Coach warned however that any returning players would be eased into the team, like Étienne Capoue was over the past few games, starting with cameos off the bench.

“Some need a little bit of time to be on a good physical level to be part of the squad. Maybe we could start to use them in some part of the game, 15-20 minutes,” said Ivić.

“Now in this moment we have three games more until this international break and this break will be good for them to come to the level with the other guys and to be ready to play all games after this.

“Hughes and Gray have worked hard in the last months, they have been out for a long time, we must treat them in a special way. Everybody knows they are not ready to play 90 minutes. Like we did with Étienne, we start to use him slowly until the last game [when] he played 90 minutes.”

There is further good news regarding two players who came off injured in matches last week, with neither Stipe Perica nor Christian Kabasele expected to be out for long.

“It’s good news because he [Perica] doesn’t need to do surgery, he will take part in rehabilitation for 10-14 days maximum and after the international break I believe he will be ready to be with us, so this is good for us,” continued Ivić.

“Christian Kabasele is better, he worked today as normal. He got a kick in his nose and he’s lucky because it’s not broken, but he had some problem. I’m hoping he’ll be available for the game, but he’s one of the players who played all the games until now. I’m hoping all the players can have some rest, maybe this game will be one for him, maybe not, we will decide tomorrow but I believe he is okay and available if we need him.”