Town boss Kieran McKenna says winger Wes Burns’s ACL surgery went well, Christian Walton is expected to be out for eight weeks, but Sammie Szmodics is back for Saturday’s fourth-round FA Cup tie at Coventry with a couple of other players facing checks.

Burns has been ruled out for the season with the injury he suffered at Liverpool but McKenna says the operation that the Wales international underwent earlier in the week went well.

“He had surgery,” McKenna said. “Thankfully all went well to repair his ACL. There wasn’t too much damage to the other parts of the knee, so it’s as positive as it could be.”0:00

“Sam Szmodics will be in the squad tomorrow, he’s trained today with the group,” he said. “Conor Chaplin’s not training yet.

“It’s good to have Sam back. He’s been an important figure with his goals but he’s a different type to the forwards we had playing last week or over the last couple of weeks, and also an older player in that unit as well, which was a really young unit last weekend.

“George Hirst is the senior figure in there and he’s in his mid-twenties. Nice to have Sam back and the different dynamic that he brings to that group.”

Regarding Walton, who strained his groin at Liverpool, McKenna added: “It’s looking at in and around eight weeks for the prognosis. Of course, for these things you have to monitor as you go along. Sometimes it can be a little bit quicker, sometimes a little bit longer.

“We’ll get him back as quickly as possible, but it’s that kind of rough timescale we’ve been given.”

In addition, the Blues boss says there are one or two doubts: “We’ve got one or two we’re getting checks on, nothing major, but we’ve got one or two with niggly injuries that we’re going to check on that there’s going to be a late decision on whether they’re going to be available for the game.”

Regarding U21s possibly being involved, he added: “Not impossible one, but we’ll checking on the availability of one or two of ours. We’ve got pretty good depth at the moment.

“There’s a possibility one might be involved but also a possibility that we’ll be travelling with a really good bill of health for the senior players and try and keep that group together.”

McKenna confirmed there would be the expected changes and wouldn’t commit on whether new keeper Alex Palmer would be handed his debut.

“We’ll make the decision on tomorrow, what we think is right for the team and the group and we’ll do that for every game,” he said.

Chiedozie Ogbene suffered an achilles tear at Brentford in October and is making progress but McKenna says is not expected to return this season.

“Progressing very well in terms of the rehab that he can [do] and has been good around the building,” he said. “But very unlikely to be involved this season as it stands.”

Photo: Matchday Images

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