TOWN boss Danny Wilson is hopeful his trio of injury doubts will win their fitness battle for Saturday’s play-off final at Wembley.
David Lucas, Alan Sheehan and Billy Paynter are struggling with respective shoulder, pelvic and hamstring complaints ahead of this weekend’s clash with Millwall for a place in the Championship.
Wilson insists they will not be named in the squad unless 100 per cent fit, but the manager admits the signs are promising.
“He would want to play with one hand, wouldn’t he?” said Wilson of Lucas.
“And that’s what we’ve got to be careful of – that he’s not hiding the fact that he’s in discomfort.
“We can’t have him going out there if he’s not fit, and we won’t have him going out there if he’s not fit, that’s for sure.
“But the way it’s looking at the moment is promising.
“Alan Sheehan and Billy Paynter are in the same position. If we feel they are not up to it then we can’t put them out there.
“That would be detrimental to the team and I won’t let that happen.”
Wilson believes 29-goal top scorer Paynter’s performances on the training pitch this week will determine if he will be involved for the final.
“Different players react differently to training during the week,” he explained.
“Some prefer to be fairly low-key during the week, and you look at them and thing they are being a bit lazy. But that’s how they build themselves up and on the Saturday are magnificent.
“Others are quite the opposite – they want to train hard all week because they feel they need that for Saturdays.
“With Billy I think he needs the latter. He needs to train hard and be on top of his game throughout his training to be there.
“So that’s what we are looking at next week – for him to train full tilt all week. And then we will have to look and see how he is.”
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