Left-back Harry Pickering has an outside chance of being available to face Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup tomorrow evening. Pickering suffered severe bruising when being bumped in a challenge away at Crawley Town. Pickering tried to carry on but was eventually forced off in our 2-1 win.

Oli Finney replaced him that night for the remaining 12 minutes, but with Olly Lancashire returning from suspension to face Newport County, Nicky Hunt switched to left-back at Rodney Parade on Saturday.

Ahead of our intriguing home tie against Dean Smith’s Villa, David Artell said of Pickering:

“Harry has a bruised hip. A scan has shown that there is no tear so that is a real positive. He got a bit of a whack in a challenge and it has been a sore one.

“He didn’t quite make it for the weekend at Newport but we are assessing it and hopefully it will settle down even more. We will have to see how he is tomorrow but we have Nicky there if he doesn’t make it.”