Hayden Muller will miss Saturday’s Enterprise National League match against Southend United after being sent off following the conclusion of Sutton’s 2-1 defeat to Rochdale.

The defender was shown a second yellow card after the full time whistle, having initially picked up a booking in the closing stages of stoppage time, and will serve a one-game suspension as a result.

“He will obviously be a big loss, because I think he’s, since he’s come back from loan, I’ll put him in the conversation of Player of the Year. I think he’s been outstanding, and I think we’re a better team when he’s in midfield as well.

I think him and Jake Taylor, when they’re together, it gives us a great balance in there and gives us a great platform to not only build the attack and, and create chances to also sustain the attack because we’re better against the ball.

So he’s a big loss, but, it’s the one area of the pitch where we are incredibly strong and that real strength in depth.”

Jermaine Francis will be monitored after returning from international duty, with the trip to Aldershot potentially coming too soon for the 24-year old.

The forward started both games of the FIFA Series as Grenada were defeated by Rwanda and Kenya, having switched attention from the FIFA World Cup Qualification after finishing third of Group B in the Second Round of CONCACAF qualifiers.

“We obviously need to look at where he’s at – returning from international duty, obviously a lot of travel and all the rest of it. We also need to acknowledge that I think we’ve just produced a Shrewsbury type level of performance with a group of players.

I thought David Ogbonna and Brandon Njoku were outstanding for us, and I’ve always been a big believer in if you’ve got the shirt and you’re playing well, you keep the shirt. And if you’re at a team, you’ve got to take off someone’s back.”

Aaron Jones (ankle), Alex Kirk (back) and Jack Wadham (knee) all remain in the treatment room, but the latter two have returned to the grass after spending extended periods on the sidelines, and have made strong progress in their recoveries.

“Kirk is getting getting closer, which is great news is, it’s glaringly obvious that we need more depth at centre half, we need to add more experience, we need to add more even more quality.

We’ve got real quality there with Pruts and Junior – but Junior is a right back, he’s done unbelievably well for us but he’s a right back – so Kirk is another centre back option.

Getting closer is massive, but even on top of that, we still need more experience back there and Kirky can help with that.

And Jack Wadham is someone that we were so excited about working with when we came to the club because we worked together at Worthing and he did amazingly well for us.

He’s a real key part of that team so, the sooner you can come back, the better, and again, it gives us even more competition for places in a really strong area side.”