Michael Appleton provides mixed injury news ahead of Blackpool’s trip to Stoke City

Richard Keogh was expected to be back in contention after missing Blackpool’s opening day win against Reading with a groin issue.

But Pool’s head coach has revealed the 35-year-old is “still struggling” with the injury and is unlikely to feature at the bet365 Stadium.

There is better news elsewhere though, with Jordan Gabriel and James Husband stepping up their recoveries from hamstring injuries.

When asked if there’s good news on his injured players, Appleton told The Gazette: “There is and there isn’t.

“Keesy is still struggling a little bit and that’s frustrating. Jordan is coming on and James Husband is coming on well.

“They’ve now trained for six or seven days I think it is without any real issues, so we’re just looking to build their training schedule up now as we go along, but hopefully it won’t be too long until you see them.”

While Appleton is delighted to see Gabriel and Husband return to training, he also warned it might take some time for them to be in the picture for team selection given they’ve had no pre-season to fall back on.

“We’re going to have to be very patient with them,” Pool’s head coach added.

“You’re always keen to get them involved as quickly as you can but you’ve always got to look at the bigger picture and think ‘well, the reality is if we bring them back too soon I could lose them for a period of time’. That’s the last thing we want.

“From our point of view, we’ve got to be sensible, we’ve got to listen to the medical staff and be advised with the training programmes they do to make sure when they do come back they’re ready and good to go.”

Chris Maxwell, Luke Garbutt, Doug Tharme, Kevin Stewart, Keshi Anderson and Jake Beesley all remain sidelined too.

While Stewart has done some straight-line running, he’s still looking at a month on the sidelines, while Beesley will be even longer. Both are suffering with a stress fracture of the foot.