WREXHAM have up to nine players struggling to recover from injury or illness in time for this Saturday's match against Divison Two bottom club Wycombe Wanderers at the Racecourse.

By the end of training yesterday, manager Denis Smith had Chris Llewellyn (dead leg), Paul Whitfield (stomach problem), Brian Carey (ankle), Shaun Holmes (groin), Paul Barrett (knee), Darren Ferguson (knee), Lee Jones (calf), Stephen Thomas (hamstring) and Stephen Roberts (dead leg) under treatment.

Smith said: "We are being stretched to the limit. I really haven't got a clue when any of them will be fit.

"Stephen Rober t s, for instance, picked up a knock on Monday last week and the physio said he would be okay for Tuesday night. But he still wasn't training today.

"The one good thing is that we have a week off at last with no game, which will hopefully give people time to recover."

Smith spent yesterday afternoon poring over the video of the Dragons' 3-2 defeat at Luton last Saturday.

Apart from conducting his own post-mortem on how his team allowed a two-goal lead to slip, the Wrexham manger was also deliberating over whether to appeal against Darren Ferguson's red card at Kenilworth Road for alleged retaliation against a tackle by Hatters striker Adrian Forbes.

If Smith deems his captain to have been guilty, however, then Ferguson is likely to face a fine in addition to his automatic three-match ban.

But the manager said: "Whatever happens, I'm not going to say anything about it until I have spoken to Darren first."

Looking ahead to the encounter with Wycombe, where former Arsenal and England captain Tony Adams has recently moved into the hot-seat, Smith will warn his players to expect a tough match, even though their prospective visitors have won just two matches out of 18 in the league so far this season.

"We would never take anything for granted anyway," said the Dragons boss.

"But apart from our injuries, they have got a new manager and will be fired up to get a result for him."