Club

NATHAN JONES ON ALAN MCCORMACK, DANNY HYLTON & ELLIOT LEE

At his pre-Stevenage press conference at The Brache this lunchtime, Town boss Nathan Jones said that Alan McCormack is back in first team training, but there will be a wait before Danny Hylton and Elliot Lee will be back in action.

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McCormack hasn't made an appearance since he came off during the first half against Wycombe Wanderers back in mid-September, but appears to have got over the muscle problems that have hampered his time at Kenilworth Road.

Jones explained: "We would have liked to given him game time on Tuesday in the Bedfordshire FA Senior Cup semi-final at Bedford Town. But with the conditions, we thought it was better he trained here.

"So we did and he trained very well and that benefited him, so he's available from the ones that weren't available last week. When he's ready to come back and has had enough training time we want him to come back, we want him to play, we need him to play minutes.

"So I'd have no problem in putting him in from the start if he was fit and ready to go. What I wouldn't want him to do is not be ready and break down again and make a sub after 10, 15, 20, 25 minutes, whatever it is.

"So once he's ready we'll know that. It's easier when you've actually seen them in a game, but because we train as hard as a game, it's not like he hasn't had the minutes. It's just getting them ready and psychologically letting him know and us know that he could start in a game and then putting him in.

"We want all our best players available. He was brought in here to do a job and because of injuries that's been curtailed and we haven't quite got it.

"I want all of them available and I want the headaches of picking the squad and the team as much as I possibly can. I haven't had that with some as they've been out for a little while, so it would be nice to have them back."

Hylton has been struggling with a hamstring problem, which the gaffer believes his staff have got to the bottom off, whilst Lee's return is down to his pain management having hurt his shoulder in the defeat to the Chairboys last week.

Jones continued: "With Elliot Lee we don't really know when he will return to full training, it was all good news on the scans, so it's just now about managing the pain. He's obviously in a bit of discomfort, there's nothing structurally wrong with him, so it'll be how much he can handle the pain.

"Now if we don't see him for these next two games – we hope we do, but if we don't – then we've got a bit of a break where we can hopefully get back to a full squad and it will be then a full squad.

"We're a bit more knowledgeable now what was wrong with Hylton, so he's in a far better place than he was a week ago.

"Mentally he was a bit frustrated, but Hylts is in a far better place now, he really is. It's a niggly one because it was his hamstring, but he wasn't pulling his hamstring, it was just referred pain, so we've been able to get to the bottom of that.

"We hope now that to the end of the season we're going to get him playing as many games as we possibly can. Then if we do that, we know we're a better side when Danny Hylton is in the team."

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