Shropshire Star

Chris Skitt provides Shrewsbury Town injury update on Joe Riley and Bryn Morris

Shrewsbury Town physio Chris Skitt has offered an update on Shrewsbury Town duo Bryn Morris and Joe Riley, as they seek their comebacks from injury.

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Riley has been sidelined for almost four months after breaking his fibula and sustaining ligament damage on the final day of last season, and is set to take part in a behind closed doors friendly with local neighbours Walsall.

Meanwhile Morris is now beginning his recovery following surgery on his knee after suffering injury in pre-season.

"I’m really pleased for Joe" Skitt said, via the Shrewsbury Town website.

"He’s been a credit to himself once again and he’s worked extremely hard. He’s a consummate professional who’s forever wanting to do more.

"Sometimes that’s the issue with him because you have to reign him in at times, but credit to him, he’s bounced back, mentally he’s been really strong with it and he’s looking really good in training.

"Now that we’ve got him mechanically sound and the injury itself has healed and it back to normal, it’s a matter of building his football, but also building up a tolerance to the bone.

"Then it’s purely about building his fitness. Looking at when he, the gaffer and I feel that he is ready to get back involved.

"It’s about getting back to his previous numbers and making sure that he’s ready and we aren’t pushing him back any earlier than he needs to be."

Paul Hurst has included Riley in his squad that takes on Walsall in a behind closed doors game this week, and was excited to see him come back into the fold.

"For me, it’s a great game for all the lads, but for someone like Joe, who hasn’t played in pre-season, it will be the first time he’s been involved in a game since the Oxford game at the end of last season, so it will be great for Joe to get back out there and show what he can do." He said.

But whilst Riley is nearing a full return, Morris is slightly further back in his recovery, but Skitt believes that he's getting on the right track regarding his recovery but was wary when speaking about an exact timescale on his return.

"Bryn’s doing alright" He said.

"He was a bit unfortunate that in a tackle in one of the games he got a twist on the leg with a bit of weight on it and he caught a bit of cartilage.

"He had corrective surgery for that and hopefully he will start to progress quite quickly and we will start to get him back out on the pitch as quickly as we can really.

"I think sometimes timescales can restrict you. The textbook answer would be four to six weeks or six to eight weeks, but we need to make sure that Bryn is ready to be pushed onto the next stage.

"Post-operation there’s a lot of swelling and inflammation involved, so over the last week we’ve been trying to get the inflammation out.

"We’ve been using machines to stimulate the muscle back into action, which will in turn get the fluid out of the knee.

"He’s been on the bike already and we will just be looking to build-up his tolerance and muscle bulk back up again."