Wednesday 26th April 2000 : Physio's treatment room update

Club physio Ken Steggles gave me another update today on the injury situation, and it was nearly all good news.

Midfielder Neil Mackenzie had an operation three weeks ago to remove "a little bit of cartilage" from his knee but he is now back in full training and progressing according to plan. "We don't anticipate any problems there," added Steggles, " and he has a chance of being involved before the end of the season."

Moving on to the season's major injury worries, midfielder Alex Russell (left) is also back in full training after the operation on his thigh. He spent a week at Lilleshall early this month before returning to full training, and according to Ken he was "unlucky not to be involved last Saturday against Preston. He has a good chance of being involved against Burnley, he's getting fit but what he's lacking is match practice and, unfortunately, he's not going to get that now."

Ken's smile could be heard down the telephone line when discussing Alex, who has missed a lot of this season through two long lay-offs with that troublesome thigh injury, and his pleasure was just as noticeable when I asked about Andy Duncan (below).

The central defender broke his leg and dislocated his ankle in a freak accident when colliding with team-mate Marc Joseph against Burnley in October, and it has been a long battle back to fitness for the 22-year-old Geordie.

He suffered a small setback when he had a spur of bone removed from his heel at the start of this year, but his excellent progress means that he has returned to training right on schedule and Steggles was clearly delighted to report: "Andy Duncan is back in training!

"He's had a week at Lilleshall (he went the week after Russell) where we sent him to work with a new face and to be assessed, and his assessment was spot on."

A few weeks ago Ken admitted that it would be lovely to see Duncan come off the bench for a few minutes in the final game of the season, but when I asked about that today he said, "We'll see. It would be nice but it might be too soon and we wouldn't want to risk all that progress just for the sake of ten minutes. Obviously we'll know more next week and take it from there."

The only bad news to report was about Michael Kyd. Dogged by knee injuries in recent seasons, the popular young striker is the only first team player currently under treatment after a major operation to repair the cartilage in one knee. Ken reported that 'Kyddie' is "under rehabilitation for a very long term injury and I'll be working with him for most of the summer until we've got him swimming and cycling again."

Look out for a major "On The Spot" interview with Ken next week and, as ever, if you have any questions to put to Ken, drop me an e-mail.