Doncaster Rovers: Injury boost as Middleton and Wright return

The Northern Ireland international has been ruled out for the whole campaign after suffering cruciate knee ligament damage in last week’s friendly at York City.

But Rovers will have Harry Middleton and Joe Wright fit for Saturday’s season opener at Accrington Stanley.

Paul Keegan has also returned to training, helping to ease Rovers’ injury crisis.

Boss Darren Ferguson insists he will not take any risks with any players returning to fitness and will only start those he believes can last 90 minutes on Saturday.

“Harry Middleton in back training and so are Paul Keegan and Joe Wright,” Ferguson told The Star. “Saturday will come too soon for Paul. He may be involved on the bench but he certainly won’t start until we get a lot more games into him.

“Harry will be fit. He gives us good flexibility. The only thing with him is, he has missed a bit of time so I’ve got to be careful.

“I’ve got to look at the minutes they’ve all had so far when it comes to deciding who to start.

“This isn’t about just Saturday, there’s the next ten months that we’ve got to take into consideration.

“Joe Wright is another one that has not had a great deal of time on the pitch so I’ll have to have a closer look at him this week.

“I’m not going to be taking any risks with anyone. I’ve got enough good players to not have to do that.

“Whatever 18 I put out on Saturday will be a strong 18.”