Joey Barton hopes Bristol Rovers captain Paul Coutts will be available for the trip to Forest Green Rovers on Saturday after suffering a knee injury in training.
The 34-year-old was a surprise absentee from Rovers' 0-0 draw with Barnsley at the Mem on Saturday after playing an important role in a morale-boosting win at Oxford United seven days previously.
Coutts had initially appeared on the teamsheet submitted to the officials before kick-off before being swiftly withdrawn and replaced by Luke McCormick when it became apparent he could not complete a pre-match fitness test. After the game, his manager revealed a knee injury was the issue, but Barton is hopeful that it will not force the Scot to miss any more action.
"He just jammed his knee in training and irritated the fat pad," Barton said. "I think he’s going to be fine, but it has swollen up and is very sore and he was nowhere near capable of giving a performance of Couttsy’s quality.
"He tried it this morning (Saturday) and he was like ‘No, I’m going to struggle here’, so hopefully we can get him fit for Forest Green next week.
"I don’t envisage a problem unless there is an adverse reaction to something in the week. A blow for Couttsy, but it was an opportunity and I thought Grant Ward came in and played a really important role in the team."
Despite Coutts' absence, Rovers were able to go toe-to-toe with a promotion-chasing Barnsley team, thanks in no small part to experienced players stepping up like John Marquis.
While the 30-year-old striker did not get the chances in front of goal he craves, he was hugely effective in disrupting the Barnsley back three with his physical hold-up play, which was the source of many of Rovers' best moments in the game and Barton was full of praise for his number nine.
"For me, until he came off he was our man of the match. He got himself unfortunately booked, he’s tried to steal the ball off the guy and the ref gives him a yellow card and then had to compete physically with Land Of The Giants up there," Barton said.
"It was a very unselfish team performance from John and he’s been that way in the past few weeks. He got his goal in the Burton game but he’s sacrificed what he wants to do for the good of the team and I’m so pleased with his performance today.
"He was a big part of us having the option to get up the pitch. Could we create more? Absolutely, but they are a good side, as Derby found out last week and from our perspective, a point is another point in the right direction."
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