Neil Critchley explains why Sullay Kaikai and Matty Virtue were missing for Blackpool's weekend win against Swindon Town

The duo were left out of Pool’s 18-man squad on Saturday for the 2-0 win against Richie Wellens’ side due to minor injury concerns.

According to head coach Neil Critchley, the pair should return to the grass in the next day or two in the hope of returning to contention for next weekend’s trip to Gillingham.

“Sullay and Matty just had something similar in the last day or two”, Critcley told The Gazette after Saturday’s win.

“We were hopeful they would be ready but they weren’t.

“It’s nothing serious and we’re expecting them to be fit early in the next week or halfway through next week.”

This is the second time Virtue has been sidelined already this season, having been named on the bench for the season opener at Plymouth Argyle having missed the previous two games with a knock.

Another player who has yet to make an appearance in the league this season is James Husband, who has yet to feature since suffering a knock during the warm-up prior to Blackpool’s EFL Trophy game against Barrow earlier this month.

Critchley had hoped to have the defender back for Saturday’s game against Swindon, but opted to err on the side of caution.

“He’s been back on the grass, but we just didn’t feel he was just right for this game,” he said.

“We’re expecting him to train on Monday or Tuesday, so none of these boys are major concerns.

“They’ll be disappointed to miss out but we’re getting a fit, healthy squad to go for what will be a tough season.

“As far as I know we have a clean bill of health from Saturday’s game. I’ll speak to the physio but there doesn’t seem to be any issues after the game.

“Keshi (Anderson) had a slight problem in the second half so we brought him off, but apart from that we’re okay.”

The man who replaced Husband at left-back, Demetri Mitchell, enjoyed another impressive outing at the weekend. So much so, the former Manchester United defender was named in whoscored.com’s League One team of the week.

Joining him, somewhat unsurprisingly, was CJ Hamilton following his match-winning brace. However, there was no room for Ethan Robson, who delivered another strong showing against the Robins.