Defender fit and available again after coming through Under-23 Fixture

Luke Offord is back in contention for our Easter fixtures after successfully coming through another 90 minutes of our Under-23 defeat against Hull City.

That came on the back of him playing 70 minutes against Colchester United at Nantwich.

Offord, who has played for the first team since suffering a hamstring injury against Bristol Rovers back in January, played the full game in central midfield.

The promising defender, who can in various roles in defence and in midfield made 25 appearances this season before suffering his injury against the Pirates just before half-time of our 3-2 win.

David Artell told the club’s official website: “I watched the Under-23 game back and Luke (Offord) did fine. He came through the 90 minutes, which was the main thing and so he is now back in contention for the Easter games.

“Those who played at Hull will do slightly less today, so he will fall into that bracket but he is back with us and is fit and available.

“We will see how they all do and then pick a team to give us the best chance of winning the game on Friday.

“Luke is a real good player and he was doing well again before his injury. He was certainly a victim of the amount of games we had to play. It was Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday and I think we had about one week away from that for about three months.

The boss added: “He was a victim of that and his young body was still developing but when you have a larger squad you can play different players at different times to cope better with those demands.”