Captain Mat Mitchel-King and his vice captain Steven Schumacher have both made a successful return to training this week, but Dario Gradi feels that two of his most senior players may need an extra week of work before they are considered again for selection.

Defender Mitchel-King has been struggling with his lower back again and Schumacher suffered a back injury when conducting a weights session a couple of weeks ago. Both players have made considerable progress under head physio Rob Sharp and fitness coach Andy Franks, but may need more time to regain their overall fitness.

Dario admits that there is no rush for either of them as the rest of his first-team squad is free from injury.

Dario told the club's official web-site: "Steven and Mat have both returned to training but they may need another week or so of full training to be considered because they have been out of action for a few weeks now.

"If I had an emergency then I could play them but I have enough numbers at the moment to cover them. I don't know if Mitchel-King would come in and significantly improve the centre-half position and I don't know that he won't. The same applies to Schumacher at the moment. Would we could come back and improve us considerably in midfield?

"They have made successful returns to training but as you expect after being out for so long they are both a little rusty. It is still early in the week, so we will assess their progress throughout the week and then see."