Saturday’s 3pm kick-off serves up a clash between the last two Championship season’s beaten play-off finalists, Coventry beaten 6-5 on penalties in the 2022-23 Wembley final to Luton Town. Mark Robins’ side could then only manage a ninth-placed finish last season but were seen as among the main teams fancied for promotion from the 2024-25 campaign.
Coventry, though, have started the new season with a haul of just five points from their first six games, Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at home to Swansea City leaving them sixth-bottom and just one point clear of the drop zone. Boss Robins has had plenty of injuries to contend with and Whites head coach Daniel Farke also had key men missing for the weekend’s visit to Cardiff City. Farke provided his latest team news at Thursday’s pre-match press conference and here we run through the injuries from both teams.
1. Pascal Struijk (doubt)
Struijk has been struggling with his adductors on the back of last weekend's win at Cardiff and was still unable to train on Thursday. Farke says there is still a chance that Struijk could feature but that he would need to train on Friday. Photo: Danny Lawson
2. Patrick Bamford (doubt)
Bamford missed a training session on Wednesday after taking a hit but Farke says he is pretty optimistic that the Whites no 9 will be available to face the Sky Blues. Photo: Ryan Hiscott
3. Junior Firpo (doubt)
Firpo missed the first part of training this week but returned to the mix on Thursday. Farke has said that his participation depends on how his body reacts but that he is carefully optimistic Photo: Stu Forster
4. Jamie Allen (doubt)
A fresh blow to a key man for Coventry. Experienced midfielder Allen suffered a knee injury in the weekend's clash against Swansea and was forced off in just the 24th minute. He then left in a leg brace and with the aid of crutches. Robins said of Allen to Coventry Live: "He’s got a knee ligament injury, so he had to come off. He twisted it. I don’t know how bad it is yet but it’s a knee problem and we’re hoping it’s not a really serious one.” Photo: Michael Regan
5. Raphael Borges Rodrigues (doubt)
Australian youth international winger Raphael joined the Sky Blues this summer from Macarthur FC but the 21-year-old missed most of pre-season with a thigh strain that he then suffered another setback with. Raphael has yet to feature and Robins said in August that he would be out for "a while". The Sky Blues declared this week that there has since been progress but slow progress. Photo: Brendon Thorne
6. Max Wober (out)
United's Austrian international defender Wober returned from a knee compliant for light training last week but then suffered a set-back in training on the eve of last weekend's Cardiff clash. The club's medical department are now trying to find a conservative solution, without which Wober will likely be sent for surgery. He has yet to return to training. Photo: Stu Forster