Brandon Njoku, Dubem Eze and Danny Cashman are all set to undergo fitness checks ahead of Sutton’s Enterprise National League clash away at Carlisle United (Saturday, 11th April; 3pm KO).
The former two both missed out on the squad all together as the U’s lost 3-0 to Southend United on Easter Monday, while Cashman was confirmed to have been named on the bench despite pulling up in training towards the start of the week with a continuous back problem from his time at Crawley Town.
The situation regarding the trio, together with Jermaine Francis, is ongoing according to Chris Agutter, and with Sutton set to travel to Cumbria on Friday afternoon, face a race against the clock to prove their fitness in order to be given the green light.
“It’s a bit of a perfect storm that’s reminiscent of the January situation where we had so many unavailable” said Agutter on Thursday.
“Obviously we’ve been back in training today, had a couple of days recovery after the Easter weekend, the two games in quick succession so the squad’s rest and recovery has been really important.”
“It’s ongoing, we’re expecting to go into the weekend with a similar group [to Southend], but we’re not ruling those other lads out because we’ve got another day to train and we’ll obviously leave it as long as possible, because those are key players for us and have played a key part in our progression and climbing and putting a lot of points on the board of late, especially on the road.”
“So we’re going to give it a as long as possible to see whether or not they can travel and be involved.”
Cashman, who joined Sutton on loan from Crawley until the end of the season ahead of the registration deadline, had been deemed fit enough to return to full training towards the backend of his time at the Broadfield Stadium, and subsequently led to his temporary departure in order to get crucial minutes in his legs.
However, after pushing to feature ahead of the visit of Southend at the start of the week, the the forward was ultimately deemed not fit, with Agutter confirming that he isn’t quite up to speed yet.
“The Danny Cashman situation is really frustrating because he’s been brought in to a massive fanfare, rightly so, because he’s an outstanding player.”
“He’s come to us off the back of a long-term injury, he was back in full training at Crawley and was deemed fit enough to go out on loan, but he’s come to us not as far as long as we would have liked.”
“He’s now back in full training. We pushed him for the Bank Holiday Monday game to try and almost tick him off in terms of being ready to play and he broke down, so that’s ongoing. That’s really frustrating and I think the others are in a similar boat.”
There is also a question mark remaining over Francis, who is yet to feature since returning from international duty, though he has trained ahead of the trip to Brunton Park. The forward appeared twice for his country at the end of March as Grenada kicked off their FIFA Series campaign with successive defeats against Rwanda and Kenya, and last appeared for Sutton in the 3-0 defeat to Truro City.
Charlie Bell meanwhile will serve the last of his two-match suspension, having served the first on Monday against Southend.
The 18-year old was shown two yellow cards against Aldershot Town on Good Friday, and due to it being his second red card offence of the season, brought an additional game to serve on the sidelines.
This will remain the case in Cumbria, but he will be available for selection once more as Sutton prepare to take on Farnham Town in the Surrey Senior Cup Semi-Final (Tuesday, 14th April: 7:45pm KO), before hosting Altrincham (Saturday, 18th April: 3pm KO) in their penultimate league game of the campaign.
