Swailes (pictured), Athletic's club captain, has yet to make an appearance after being injured in his first training session at Boundary Park. It is hoped that he will take some part in the reserves Manchester Senior Cup tie at Stockport on Wednesday. Ronnie Moore said, “We don’t want to do anything daft but, as far as I’m concerned, the sooner he plays the better. I wouldn’t even rule out a first-team game over Christmas if we pick up a couple of injuries.”
Killen has overcome his hamstring problem and will definitely play at Stockport. Killen has not made a first team appearance since October and hopes to get back on the scoresheet in a strong reserve side who won their last two games 4-1. The reserves have lost just one game in the last eight.
Haining was injured on 3rd. December at Brentford and has made sufficient progress to to be considered ready to train again. Moore is hoping that Haining will become a king-pin in the centre of defence and said, “He has done well to recover so quickly, but we all know about Will’s problems in the last year. We need to get him right before he plays. If he came back too soon and broke down again it would be soul destroying for the lad. Thankfully there’s no need to rush anything because we’ve got a few options at centre-half, especially with Chris Swailes coming back. If we ever reach a stage where every defender is fit, which is probably a big ‘if’, we are going to be very strong back there.”