WREXHAM boss Denis Smith, whose squad has been decimated by injury for much of the season, expects to be dealing from a near-full pack when League Two hostilities resume on Saturday week.
The absence of four players on international duty over the next 10 days provides a valuable breathing space for the Dragons to get players out of the treat-ment room and back into full-time training.
Physiotherapist Mike Williams, standing in for Mel Pejic who has joined up with the Wales under-21 party, yesterday provided an upbeat assessment of all the club's long-term casualties.
"Jim Whitley is likely to step up his work this week and could be training with the scholars by Friday," he said.
"Lee Roche, four weeks into the postoperative phase, should be back in training next week and as far as Matty Crowell is concerned, it's a case of building up his fitness levels, but he too should be back with the first team squad next week.
"He's seeing the surgeon who did his cartilage operation tomorrow and we anticipate he'll be given the go-ahead to crack on.
"We're also hoping that Andy Holt and Paul Warhurst will respond to treatment this week and be in a position to resume training next Monday, which means that only Shaun Pejic has some way to go.
"But his rehabilitation programme is going well and he is now just a couple of weeks away from being able to join in with the other lads. All in all, I'm hoping we'll have a virtually clean bill of health by the time Mel comes back in next Thursday."
That's music to Smith's ears, although he will be keeping his fingers crossed that internationals Mike Ingham, Dennis Lawrence, Mark Jones and Simon Spender steer clear of injury while they are away.
"Mike Ingham isn't fit, although he was on the bench on Saturday, and the same can be said of Lee McEvilly," said the Racecourse boss.
"But both of them should have recovered by the time we start preparing for the visit of Torquay United on Saturday week.
"At last we are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel and, even if there are three or four players still unavailable by then, the picture will look much healthier than it has in recent weeks.
"It was absolutely vital that we won our game against Stockport on Saturday, because we didn't want to go into a two-week break on the back of another defeat," he added..
"Our record at the Racecourse this season has been good and although Stockport helped us by having a player sent off, those are the sort of breaks you sometimes need.
"Hopefully, we'll have a bit more luck in future than we've had since the beginning of the season but the key to success is playing well.
"I'm never satisfied and there were aspects of the performance on Saturday which we need to improve.
"Good players do the easy things well and some of our passing was not as crisp and accurate as it should have been.
"That was down to sloppiness as was the mistake by goal-keeper Michael Jones which almost led to a Stockport goal.
"Michael's young and he's done very well for me, but that doesn't mean he can't be told when he's made a mistake and let his concentration drop.
"And he has been told - not in a heavy-handed way - so hopefully he'll take the message on board and learn from it."
Meanwhile, Tranmere Rovers will assess the fitness of Ian Sharps before deciding whether to recall
Paul Linwood from his loan spell at the Racecourse Ground.
Rovers are permitted to bring him back with an instant recall.
* WREXHAM Reserves tackle their Chester City counterparts in the mini derby at Buckley Town's Globe Way ground tomorrow night at 7pm.
