Ken Steggles took a few minutes away from a bulging treatment room to give an update to U's Net readers about the lengthening injury list. The United physio has five recent first teamers under treatment, and we spoke about them first.

Neil Mustoe: "He has a torn hamstring. It's a tear in the muscle belly of his hamstring and he will be out for a couple of weeks at least. It could be three."

Jason Kavanagh (hamstring): "He's coming on really well and I'm hoping to put him back into training next week."

Clive Wilson (knee ligament): "He's also coming on really well and - hopefully - he can go back to training again by the middle or end of next week."

Steve Guinan (hamstring): "He's doing very well and he went back to some light training today. I like them to train for a week at least before putting them into a match, but that's not always possible."

Tom Cowan (twisted ankle): "He will not play tomorrow, but hopefully if all goes well he can train again by the middle of next week. He's really keen to play."

In his 'On The Spot' interview yesterday, Roy McFarland revealed that Michael Kyd has injured his knee again and would be seeing a specialist, and Ken confirmed the bad news:

"We had a training game here on Wednesday or Thursday last week, first team against reserves, and Michael rotated very badly on his right knee and it's not looking too clever at the moment. It's probably a cartilage tear but it's difficult to tell because of the swelling, his knee is blown up like a balloon at the moment.

"He's seeing the specialist next week when the swelling has gone down a bit and if he needs an operation we're hopeful he can have that perhaps next Tuesday. It's the same knee again, his right knee, and it could be the cartilage, it might be the lateral ligament and we're obviously hopeful it's not the cruciate ligament."

Of the two long-term absentees, the news was mixed:

Alex Russell (torn thigh muscle sheath): "He started a little jogging today and we'll see if there's any reaction. If not, we'll know where we are with him next week."

Andy Duncan (broken leg): "Andy will be going back to see the consultant who did the operation to remove the spur of bone from his heel. He's still got a little problem there and he might need an injection next week just to calm that down. But it's not held up his rehabilitation very much."

My thanks again to Ken Steggles for his time in a very busy week.