Shrewsbury Town duo fight battle to be fit

Shrewsbury Town defenders Darren Jones and Reuben Hazell are doubts for Saturday's curtain-raiser against Leeds United at Elland Road.

Both players are struggling to make the XI for Graham Turner's first competitive team sheet of the season as they recover from injuries.

Hazell's pre-season preparations have been hampered by a calf strain which forced him to spend a week-and-a-half on the sidelines and miss the friendlies against Evesham, Birmingham and Leicester.

Meanwhile, Jones has not trained this week as a result of a calf strain.

Hazell said last week he had overcome the problem and had not given up on making the Capital One Cup clash.

But Turner today said there is still some doubt over both players' involvement with two days to go.

"I'm not sure if Hazell has had enough training and game time and Darren has not trained all this week yet but we will have a look over the next few days," he said.

Those two aside though, Turner has no other injury problems going into Saturday's game and is confident that the club's pre-season preparations will stand them in good stead for the season.

He saw his team complete their final friendly on Tuesday with a 2-0 practice match victory over Welsh Premier champions The New Saints.

The match involved several players in need of more game time ahead of the new season and Turner said he was confident the team's quality and preparation will ensure a strong season is League One this year.

"I thought they did extremely well against TNS and although it was 2-0 it could have been more," he said. "I was impressed by the individual performances as I was by the team performance.

"I think we have had a good pre-season and the overall standard of play from individuals and the attitude they have had since the day they came back for training, there has been a terrific attitude. I feel we have got a good enough squad for League One."

See also:

• Marvin Morgan confident Shrewsbury Town can upset odds

• Mark Wright calls for repeat of Shrewsbury Town home form

• Shrewsbury Town stars have last chance to impress