Wright, Sheaf, Dovin - Coventry City injuries & expected return dates ahead of Sheffield Utd

Coventry City are in a state of flux following the departure of long-standing manager Mark Robins. Rhys Carr is in interim charge of the squad while owner Doug King continues his search for a new head coach, with Frank Lampard tipped to be favourite to take over.

Whether whoever comes in to replace Robins is appointed before the weekend's CBS Arena match with Sheffield United remains to be seen, with Carr continuing to run things at Ryton until told otherwise.

But whether it's Carr or the new man, they face on-going selection issues with a mounting list of Sky Blues players receiving treatment. The latest and most worrying blow was suffered in the impressive comeback draw at Sunderland just befoe the international break when leading scorer Haji Wright was stretchered off with what looked like a nasty looking injury to his right ankle, going by the replay footage, which meant he wasn't able to weight bear on it at all afterwards.

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The injury meant USA international was forced to withdraw from duty with his country, who beat a Jamaica side including Joel Latibeaudiere 4-2 this week in the Concacaf Nations League, while speculation across the pond claims the striker could be out for two to three months.

Elsewhere, goalkeeper Oliver Dovin sat out at the Stadium of Light after a "freak" training ground injury, as did Ben Sheaf with a foot injury. The good news, however, is that Ellis Simms was back on the bench for the 2-2 draw with the Black Cats and existing casualties Ben Wilson, Jamie Allen and Jake Bidwell - all of whom have similar knee ligament injuries - are edging closer to a return.

Elsewhere, right winger Raphael Borges Rodrigues made his long-awaited comeback in the Under-21s on Tuesday (Nov 19) when he came through 65 minutes. He's now expected to build up his match minutes with more development games before being involved in a first team match.

Here is all the very latest on City’s injury front as things stand...

Haji Wright

Injury: ankle

What's been said: Rhys Carr said after the Sunderland match: "He came into the dressing room on crutches and with bags of ice on his ankle. That will take a little bit of time to get assessed properly to see where he is, so it’s difficult to know where he is with that but hopefully it’s not too bad. I think he went over on it or twisted it."

Return date: We'll no doubt find out more at Friday's pre-match press conference whether it's short or longer term issue, but the fact that he didn't travel for international duty with the USA suggests he'll be a doubt for this weekend at the very least.

Oliver Dovin

Injury: unspecified

What's been said: Rhys Carr explained after the Sunderland game: “There was a real freak accident yesterday (Fri) at the training ground. He was desperate to play but on medical advice we decided that Oliver’s health was more important than a game of football. He is extremely disappointed but I just felt that was the right thing to do for his welfare.”

Asked what he has done, he said: “I can’t really disclose what it is but it is something that we felt his welfare was more important on, so that’s where we are on that one.”

Return date: Given that the player was 'desperate' to play last time out suggests it's not that serious. Should be available for Sheffield United.

Ben Sheaf

Injury: Foot

What's been said: Carr said at Sunderland: “With Sheafy, he’s captain of the team and we gave him as long as we could. He’s a top player but we didn’t feel we could get the best version of Ben today with the knock that he has got so we made the decision to do things a different way.

“He’s got a knock on a foot which is giving him difficulty with change of direction and things like that, and the way Ben plays the game you have to be at 100 percent to do that. So we weren’t able to get the best version of Ben, so we made that decision.

“He did it on Wednesday night and he’s absolutely gutted. He’s captain of the team. He tried to train yesterday but he found it really difficult, and I think time was against us on this occasion.

Return date: Not thought to be serious, expected to be fit this weekend.

Ben Wilson

Injury: Knee ligament strain

What’s been said: “He’s OK, just recovering from a ligament tweak," was the initial diagnosis issued by Mark Robins, who added ahead of the trip to Middlesbrough: "Ben Wilson, Jamie Allen and Jake Bidwell - the three of them are competing against each other in the gym, so they are working really hard.

“But they are going to be a few weeks yet. I don’t know if I am talking two or three weeks for one and four or five weeks for another, but they are still a way away, and certainly won’t be back before the international break.”

Return date: Sometime after the current international break.

Jamie Allen

Injury: Medial collateral knee ligament injury

What’s been said: The midfielder dropped to the deck, clearly in some trouble at around the 20 minute mark against Swansea on September 21. Robins said: “Jamie has a medial collateral ligament injury and will be out for a significant amount of time, probably going to be eight to ten weeks. It’s a setback for Jamie as well as us. He’s been through quite a torrid 12 months with various issues, and he doesn’t do anything by halves. If he has an issue, it’s an issue.”

Return date: Allen is just over eight weeks into his “eight to ten week” recovery and therefore should be back soon, although it's unlikely that he'll be fit enough for this weekend. Robins said earlier this month (Nov 1): “Jamie will be certainly earlier than Bidders."

Jake Bidwell

Injury: Knee ligament strain

What’s been said: Robins provided an update on Friday (Oct 18), saying: “He’s an unbelievable healer and he won’t be that long at all. He’s somebody who does everything right and he will be pushing through everything, and even if he’s in a little bit of pain he will come back and as long as it’s not negative to him he will get himself back really quickly. They were looking at about eight weeks but it’s been a couple of weeks already and I think he will be quicker than that, a lot quicker than that. Bidders is working his socks off, as they all are.

Return date: The left-back is six and a half weeks into his eight-week recovery programme, so will hoopefully be back by the end of the month.