Stewart, Lavery, Yates & Madine: Blackpool's injury state of play ahead of Burnley test

Strikers Jerry Yates and Gary Madine have both trained, but Shayne Lavery is facing six to eight weeks on the sidelines after injuring his hamstring against Reading last week.

Yates missed that game having been forced to hobble off against Blackburn Rovers with a similar issue.

Madine was also complaining of a hamstring issue during the 3-1 loss to Reading but he managed to stay on until the 80th minute.

Providing the latest update on the injury front, McCarthy said: “We’ve still got injuries, but Jerry Yates has trained, Gary Madine has trained.

“Shayne Lavery won’t be fit, he could be out for six to eight weeks.

“I asked him how he got it and he told me he just sidefooted the ball, which is very strange.

“He had only just come back and I thought he started really well. We started in a 4-4-2 but we had to change the shape when he went off.

“We haven’t got too many strikers. We’ve got two now for the weekend, Jerry and Gaz are both coming back from injuries as such. Not long-term, but still niggly ones nevertheless.”

Elsewhere, Lewis Fiorini is likely to come back into contention after playing 90 minutes for the development squad in midweek.

But the Seasiders are still without a number of names, with Marvin Ekpiteta, Charlie Goode, Liam Bridcutt, Kevin Stewart, Tom Trybull, Keshi Anderson and Jake Beesley all missing.

Stewart is one player that has yet to make a single appearance this season following another injury-plagued campaign.

When asked if the midfielder is close to a return to full-time training, McCarthy said: “I don’t think so.

“I check up with him every day and he’s certainly getting closer. He’s doing his gym work and out on the grass doing work with the physios, so he’s getting closer.

“But nobody is planning on him playing in the development squad next week and I’ve not had any plans from anybody in terms of when he should be coming back to full training.

“Until that comes, I’m still a little bit none the wiser.”