Blackpool handed potential fitness boost ahead of midweek trip to Coventry City

The stand-in captain was a surprise absence on Saturday as Blackpool made it three home wins on the spin with a comprehensive 3-1 victory against Bristol City.

The centre-back took a whack to his knee during the recent draw against Fulham, Neil Critchley revealed, and didn’t train all last week as a result.However, the knock isn’t a serious one and the 26-year-old could feature at the Ricoh tomorrow night should he come through training okay.

“We’re still hopeful,” Critchley said this morning.

“He will be assessed again today. We train this afternoon, so we’ve still got a bit of time until tomorrow night.

“It’s not serious, it’s just a bang on the knee that’s not settled down like we would have hoped.

“Fingers crossed he will be involved tomorrow night.”

Elsewhere, both Reece James and Kevin Stewart are now back available for selection.

James has recovered from a hamstring injury, while Stewart has now returned from international duty with Jamaica - where the midfielder played his first two games since October on his return from an ankle injury.

“He feels fit and well,” Critchley said.

“He could be like a new signing for us a little bit. He could be like a January signing.

“Hopefully Kev can have a big contribution for the second half of the season because I think we’ve missed his presence in the centre of the pitch at times this season.

“As for Reece, he’s available, he trained all last week.

“He’s been out for about six weeks, so again ideally if we had room in the schedule maybe a (friendly) game would help him, but sometimes we can’t do that.

“Reece is a fit guy, his endurance is fantastic, so it’s about getting him enough training and putting him in as many match situations as we can in training to prepare him for when he gets an opportunity to play again.”

James Husband and Keshi Anderson have both been doing some light running, but aren’t expected to return from their hamstring injuries soon.

Chris Maxwell is also making good progress in his recovery from his second quad injury of the season, albeit again a return isn’t thought to be imminent.

“He spent a few days last week at St George’s Park,” Critchley said on his club captain.

“He’s been doing some running on the grass and a little bit of handling work.

“He’s getting closer, but he’s still a little bit away yet. We don’t want to take any unnecessary risks with him, but he’s progressing.

“So far the signs have been all positive.”

Luke Garbutt (knee), Matty Virtue (ACL), Grant Ward (achilles) and Sonny Carey (metatarsal) also remain sidelined.

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