Matt Taylor playing Shrewsbury waiting game

Shrews have been up against it over the last few weeks and their injury problems seem to be getting worse by the game.

They have managed to pick up results on the pitch though, with two wins and a draw in their last three games. They have 10 players out injured and four out of six of the club’s loan players are currently in the treatment room – some of those are with long-term injuries, too.

Salop are struggling to fill their bench at the moment, but Taylor says it is too early to know what will happen to those players come January when they could go back to their parent clubs.

“It is a bit early to talk about that at the moment,” he said.

“We have had recruitment meetings about what January looks like, but until we know where those players are, in terms of proximity of returning to play, they are conversations that are hypothetical at the moment.

“What do we want, we want good footballers who are fit and ready to fight for our club Shrewsbury Town.

“It is disappointing that four out of the six players who are in the building on loan are injured.”

Brandon Fleming, Ryan Finnigan, Kieran Phillips and Elliot Thorpe are the players out injured – and Taylor says there was very little anyone could do about those injuries.

“But Brandon was a contact, Elliot Thorpe has had a back fracture, there is not a huge amount you can do about that,” he continued.

“Ryan Finnigan ruptured his ankle ligaments in training when there was no one near him.

“And Kieran Phillips has a problem with his knee, which was not the issue he had just overcame when we signed him. They are all injuries that weren’t avoidable. Three of those injuries are sheer and utter horrendous luck.

“I do not want it to define this season, I want to make us and the team become more of a unit.

“What I mean by that is I want the mentality to be really firm, around doing the best you can, about running hard and fighting for each other.

“What I would say about the players here is their team spirit is really good. You can see that in the way they play. They run and they fight.

“You can talk about all the technical and tactical aspects, and we do spend a lot of time on that, but that determination to help your team-mate out and to be as a unit – the players have that.”