Kyle McFadzean will have to wait a little longer to make his Crawley Town comeback after being struck down with a sickness bug.
The Reds’ centre-back has not played since November after a virus affected his respiratory system, and was pencilled in to play a part in tonight’s Sussex Senior Cup quarter final at Hastings United. But with a bug going around, which had affected coach Craig Brewster and manager Richie Barker this week, McFadzean will not be risked at Pilot Field tonight.
Manager Barker explained: “There is a little bit of a bug going around at the moment, Kyle is not feeling 100 per cent and we cannot take any risks.
“It’s a shame because he has trained really well for two or three weeks now but hopefully he will be back in competitive action very soon.”
Mark Connolly, who was sent off in the first minute of last night’s 2-1 defeat to Brentford, will feature as Barker plans to play a mix of youth and first team professionals against Crawley’s former Southern League foes.
Jonte Smith, Aiden O’Brien and goalkeeper Johnny Maddison all set to be involved along with trialist Jamie Finch, a left-back who has been playing in the United States for Carolina Railhawks.
Barker added: “One of their coaches, Greg Shields, is an old team-mate of Craig Brewster’s at Dunfermline and he recommended Jamie who has come over and trained with the squad for a few days, so we will see how he looks.”