While the injury news has been largely positive for Joey Barton's Bristol Rovers of late with the queue for the treatment room at The Quarters shortening, the manager will have to make do without John Marquis for the time being.
The striker suffered a knock in the EFL Trophy win over Crystal Palace under-21s on October 4, going off after 45 minutes, and he missed Saturday's League One win over Cambridge United as a result. Scans have revealed the 30-year-old has a knee ligament issue.
Injuries never come at a good time, but this one is particularly unfortunate from Marquis' perspective after he scored his second league goal of the season in a good performance in the starting XI at Exeter City on October 1, and in his stead Josh Coburn made a strong impression on his full debut, scoring the winner against Cambridge.
Barton believes Marquis will miss Tuesday's trip to MK Dons and possibly Saturday's game at Cheltenham Town. His availability beyond that remains unclear.
"John got booted right at the end of the first half (against Crystal Palace) and has tweaked a ligament in his knee," Barton said. "It doesn’t look great in the scan, but John is presenting slightly better than that.
"I think it will put him out of Tuesday and possibly Saturday and then we’ll have to assess it after that. I am hoping it’s weeks, rather than months, but not ideal.
"He’s bought into what it’s about and he’s become a good character in our group. He’s different, that’s for sure, but I’m really pleased with him.
"He’ll want to score more goals because he’s a natural goalscorer and he would have been disappointed he hadn’t scored for a bit and then he got off the mark at Exeter, but then he gets a clip in the game on Tuesday night and he misses Saturday."
Despite Marquis' likely absence for the coming games, Barton still has strong options to call on in attack. Coburn was excellent on his first start, Ryan Loft is enjoying a strong run of form with five goals so far this season and Aaron Collins is ranks among the best players in the division with 11 goal contributions in 12 games.
But Barton, who has made public his current preference to play two up front with Collins in behind, admits he would love to have a fourth striker on the bench in Marquis – who has two goals and two assists in 11 games this term – in addition to the speedy Harvey Saunders.
"Obviously, the lad who comes in for him gets a goal, but I was looking at that game (on Saturday) thinking if we had a John Marquis there when Josh or Lofty start to tire, we could freshen that line up again," the manager explained. "It’s a big physical frontline and it’s different to what we’ve done in the past, but it’s horses for courses and this is a tough league and we’ve got to scrap every single week to establish ourselves as a League One club.
"The front side of the team for me, certainly in the past couple of weeks, has given us something to build off and the longer they play together, the relationships will strengthen and we’ll have a better platform."
Winger Harry Anderson also sat out Saturday's game. He was rested for the Exeter and Palace matches to allow a bruised foot to heal, but the 25-year-old was left out against Cambridge because he was not quite fully fit. With the squad stronger on Saturday than at any point so far this season, Barton had the luxury of exercising patience.
"He’s had bad bruising in his foot and he’s had a week or so to settle that down," Barton said. "He trained the last two days before the game and he had a couple of winces after challenges.
"Sod’s law, if you’ve got a bruise on your right foot, naturally you get kicked on your right foot within the first couple of challenges of a training game. It’s just the way it goes.
"I felt it was really tough. There were lads who were going to be fully fit and not carrying any knocks who would get left off maybe for Harry, who isn’t quite 100 per cent fit. We thought it would be better to allow him 48 hours to settle and get closer to what is 100 per cent fitness."
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