Yeovil Town manager Terry Skiverton admits that he is waiting to see if central defender Adam Virgo will be fit enough to play against his former club on the weekend. The Glovers travel to play League One leaders Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday, and once again a large number of players are struggling with knocks and have missed training.
Virgo is one of the more high profile concerns. The 27 year old spent seven years with the Seagulls across two spells before being released by them over the summer and moving to Huish Park. He was also born and schooled in the Brighton area and so will undoubtedly travel to the Withdean Stadium on the weekend. However, the centre-back limped off towards the end of the first half of Yeovil's 0-2 home defeat against Sheffield Wednesday, suffering from a groin injury. Manager Terry Skiverton has told BBC Somerset that he will be leaving a decision on the player until the last minute:
"It's not ideal, but these things mean that people can come in and take opportunities. Before any fall-out we need to see what kind of team we can pick. Obviously with Adam's (Virgo) past at Brighton he is desperate to play, and we'll just have to give him as long as possible, to see who is fit and who is ready to take to the field."
Other problems out in the public domain are an ongoing ankle problem that Gavin Williams has been suffering from, whilst Craig Alcock's back problems flared up when he replaced Virgo as a substitute last weekend. However, Skiverton added whilst those three were causing him concern that others were also missing, with only eleven players involved in full contact training on Thursday:
"They (Virgo, Alcock and Gavin Williams) haven't trained today. Then to add to that list, we've got Stefan Stam, obviously Danny Hutchins is out, Sam Williams hasn't trained all week, whilst Nathan Smith's first day was today. So today I think we had eleven players out there on the top pitch. So it's not ideal. It seems to keep on going every week at the moment, and we're not getting in the training that we want to do. But you've got to improvise and they're all keeping themselves fit in a non-impact sort of way and hopefully we can get them into the game. There will be fitness tests tomorrow and on Saturday morning to see who is fit and who is available."
In recent weeks, Skiverton has put a significant number of players in his starting line-up despite those players having pre-match injury concerns. However, the likes of Alcock and Gavin Williams have been noted as attempting to play through the pain barrier. Obviously there is only so many times such players can be pushed before they either become too ineffective or immobile, or where they risk more serious injury.
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21 October 2010 : 
