Blackpool FC: Neil Critchley provides injury update on Shayne Lavery, Kyle Joseph and Jordan Gabriel ahead of the Seasiders trip to Wycombe

The striker, who picked up a hamstring injury in last month’s 3-0 defeat to Lincoln City, is close to being back in contention again for the Seasiders.

Alongside Lavery, the Tangerines are also currently without Kyle Joseph and Jordan Gabriel.

“Shayne has done a little bit of training this week,” head coach Neil Critchley explained.

"We just have to decide whether he’s done enough to be in contention to come back into the squad.

"He’ll either be involved this weekend or next weekend- he’s very close.

"This is the timeframe we thought it would take, so he’s exactly where we thought he would be.

"It’s just a decision on if we think he’s done enough training.

"You’ve also got to take his thoughts into account as well, and whether he feels ready, but we’ll make that decision.

"Kyle (Joseph) is on the grass and doing some tentative ball work and straight line running, which is a sign of progress.

"He’s still a number of weeks away yet, and Jordan Gabriel is similar as well.

"Other than that, we have a clean bill of health- everyone is fit and ready to go.”

Critchley admits he has some tough selection decisions to make on Saturday afternoon, with the Seasiders’ last League One outing before the international break being their 2-1 victory over Wigan Athletic.

“Disappointing people who are good professionals is the hardest part of the job,” he added.

"Unfortunately I can only pick 11 players and this weekend I can only take a squad of 18.

"Naturally some people are going to be disappointed, but I wouldn’t expect them to be happy- as long as everyone is respectful.

"Ideally we wanted to play last weekend because you wanted to build on the result against Wigan.

"If you look at our schedule now, there’s no breaks- it’s a very busy period, so those few days were a chance for everyone to rest psychologically just as much as physically.

"We’ve got a few Saturdays to Saturdays to come, which means we can spend a bit more time on the training pitch in between games, but then that quickly falls into the Saturday, Tuesday coming up.

"We always look ahead, to plan and prepare for what we think is the right thing for every individual player we’ve got in our squad.

“We want to build on where we’re at.

"The players had last weekend off, but the staff had the review of our start to the season, and that lasted quite a few hours.

"We had a bit of time to reflect and that will influence the work we do in between games.

"I take great encouragement from the start to the season and from our performances.

"I think we should have more points than what we’ve got.

“I’ve been really encouraged by our start and I don’t see any reason why we won’t improve and get better.”