Roy McFarland may be forced into another team reshuffle as injuries and suspension take their toll ahead of tomorrow's visit to Stoke City.

Right-back Jason Kavanagh looks likely to be denied an early return to his former club as he is still struggling with the hamstring injury that ruled him out of last week's home draw against Wigan. He and Neil Mustoe, who has a thigh injury, represented the club at a funeral this morning and are therefore said to be extremely doubtful, while young central defender Martin McNeil reportedly strained a hamstring in training yesterday.

Roy McFarland told the Cambridge Evening News, "We'll give Martin McNeil and Neil Mustoe as long as we can before naming the side, but they are struggling at the moment."

To add to those injury woes, centre-half Marc Joseph is suspended after accruing five yellow cards and therefore England Under-18 defender Adam Tann has been added to the squad, as has reserve right-back Ben Chenery. Striker Michael Kyd is rewarded for his "outstanding" mid-week performance and four goals for the reserves by being restored to the first team party, but Trevor Benjamin and Steve Guinan look set to build on the promising start they made to their fledgling partnership last week against Wigan.

Despite these headaches, McFarland was optimistic as he looked ahead to tomorrow's visit to the Britannia Stadium. He said, "There's confidence in the squad after three League games unbeaten, and we know Stoke are stuttering a bit, so we are still in with a good chance as long as we start well and make sure we keep things a bit tight early on.

"If Stoke are allowed to play the way they want to they have quality. Our report on the match at Gillingham says they could have been 4-0 up by half time."

Midfielder Neil Mackenzie will be relishing the return to his former club, and it is important that he is on top form now that the team must cope without the creativity of Alex Russell for several weeks and possibly the rest of the season, after his thigh operation this week. The Potters have taken just one point from their last four games and strikers Kyle Lightbourne and Peter Thorne may be recalled after being dropped for the midweek defeat at Luton Town.

Meanwhile skipper Nicky Mohan is doubtful with a hamstring injury and the experienced Kevin Keen fractured a wrist in training and misses out.