Blackpool squad news V Bradford City: Four out and one doubt ahead of first home game of 2026
Blackpool welcome Bradford City to Bloomfield Road this afternoon (K.O. 3pm).
Blackpool’s first home game of 2026 comes against Bradford City this afternoon.
The Seasiders will be looking to build on their strong run of form from December, while bouncing back from a disappointing outing away to Port Vale on New Year’s Day.
A red card for James Husband changed the direction of the contest at Vale Park, with the home side cancelling out Tom Bloxham’s goal to claim an emphatic 5-1 win.
While the club’s early season injury crisis has eased, they are still without several players, with a few new blows coming in the past month.
Here’s the latest squad news:
James Husband
Following an unsuccessful appeal over Husband’s sending off against Port Vale, the defender will now serve a three-match ban, starting with the Bradford City game.
Hayden Coulson
Hayden Coulson was forced off in the opening exchanges of the Seasiders’ meeting with Wigan at the Brick Community Stadium last month.
It was later confirmed the wing-back had suffered a 3c hamstring tendon injury, with his spell on the sidelines forecast to be six to eight weeks.
Niall Ennis
With a number of players recently returning to action for Blackpool, Niall Ennis will be hoping to join them in training soon having been out of action since the end of September due to an achilles problem.
In the latest update on the striker, Evatt said: “He’s just been ticked off with the late stage rehab, but obviously he’s going to be fresh into training and we’re going to have to reintegrate him slowly.
“Getting him up to match fitness and match sharpness will take time so we can’t put too much pressure on him.
“We don’t have the size of squad to play players in a reserve game or to set up a friendly - we have to get them fit on the training pitch or in games where points are at stake. It can be complex and difficult.
“We’ll do the best we can, and hopefully he’ll be back sooner rather than later, but we can’t put pressure on him at the moment, he needs time.”
Dale Taylor
On what was his first start since October following a lengthy spell on the sidelines, Dale Taylor was forced off after just six minutes against Doncaster Rovers on Boxing Day.
The striker has since undergone surgery on a metatarsal injury, and is expected to be out for the next three months.
Michael Ihiekwe
Michael Ihiekwe has been battling a toe injury for a while, and forced him to exit early against Lincoln City last month.
Issuing an update on the 33-year-old ahead of Christmas, Evatt said: “Michael has obviously been suffering with this - I’ve got to be thankful and grateful to him because he’s put himself forwards when he’s been nowhere near 100 percent fit because we’ve needed him to.
“That’s obviously had an impact on his performance. That was down to him sacrificing himself and putting the team before himself. I’ve got a lot of respect for that.
“At this period of time, we’re just trying to settle that toe down. He’ll have a steroid injection in the next couple of weeks, which will hopefully get it right and at least settle it down until the end of the season, where we can work out what we need to do, whether it’s surgical or anything else.”
While Ihiekwe has been away from the action in the last few weeks, he has been used while struggling with injury at times this season, and Husband’s absence could maybe force Blackpool’s hand once again if he’s able to play through the pain.
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