Latest on Gary Madine, Luke Garbutt and Kevin Stewart ahead of Blackpool's trip to Derby County

The striker was a surprise absence from Blackpool’s match-day squad last weekend for the 3-0 home defeat to Luton Town.

Neil Critchley revealed afterwards the 31-year-old had suffered a slight groin injury, which is something he’s had problems with for most of the calendar year.

But Pool’s head coach says this is a separate problem to the one Madine had to undergo surgery for during the summer.

Should Madine suffer no adverse effects in training today or tomorrow, there’s an outside chance the forward could be considered at Pride Park on Saturday.

“Gary is feeling better,” Critchley told The Gazette, speaking first thing this morning.

“He’s been doing some running on the grass and some ball work, so there’s every chance he can join in training either today or tomorrow which would then make him eligible to make the squad on Saturday.

“It’s a separate issue to what he had before. He just felt his groin a little bit, it tweaked so we had that scanned and it showed a minor, minor problem.

“He just needed a couple of days to settle it down which he’s had, but Gary has been positive.

“He’s itching to get back in and he feels as though he’s good, so that’s always a good sign because Gary knows his body better than anyone.”

With a free week to prepare for this weekend’s game, that’s also given the chance for others to step-up their returns from injury.

Luke Garbutt (knee) and Oliver Casey (ankle) have made good progress, while Kevin Stewart (ankle) is also nearing a return to training.

“They’re getting closer all the time,” Critchley added.

“Luke joined in part of training on Tuesday, as did Ollie Casey.

“Kevin is slightly behind that, but we’re hopeful Kevin might be able to join in training possibly tomorrow, if not the start of next week.

“They’re getting closer all the time as well.”

Despite a bruising encounter against Luton last week in a game played in dreadful conditions, Pool have no other fresh injury concerns to worry about.

“Everyone was fine,” Critchley said.

“We had a couple of knocks, bumps and bruises you can get after games but nothing serious, nothing that has kept anyone out of training this week.

“On Monday we looked after a few players, but that can be normal. Other than that, there are no other issues from last Saturday.”

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