Coventry City manager Chris Coleman is counting the days until the return of midfielder Sammy Clingan.
Coleman is hopeful that with the return to fitness, Clingan will be the final element to having a fully fit squad that is capable of lifting the team out of the danger area at the bottom of the Championship.
'City are currently only three places and 4 points off the relegation zone.
Talking about Sammy Clingan, Mr Coleman told reporters, “He’s coming on quite slowly really, The metatarsal is a difficult one and even though the surgeon said he should have been back last week, that was too soon to be honest."
“He is doing bits of work with the physio but he is still not pain-free and I don’t see him being available for the next couple of games. Even when he gets back to full training, he is going to need a reserve game first because he has been out for the best part of two months."
“We want Sammy back because we have missed his presence and experience, not to mention his quality, so it has been frustrating and we haven’t, as yet, got all the players fit and on the pitch for a run of games and that has been frustrating to be honest. It is frustrating for the players as well because you can see it in training sometimes when players get aggravated and we are all disappointed with where we are in the table."
“But it is only us that can change that and I am still interested to see how far we can go when everyone is fit and enjoying a run of games because I think we are strong enough to pick some really good points up, some serious points."
Mr Coleman then spoke about the current plight of the club, saying, "I am not promising the play-offs or anything like that but if you look we are where we are and that is a very dangerous area.Yes, there are loads of games to play but let’s get away from it A.S.A.P.Let’s get back to a positive feeling around the training ground and the players being in a better mood."
“I thought we took a step forward on Saturday when our performance was gutsy, especially in the second half, and we have just got to build on it. We have got to start going on little runs and getting results, which we haven’t been doing.”
Coleman then concluded, “You learn a lot when you have been losing and it is how you come out the other end. You can do one of two things. You can either stay in a rut and complain about things or you can get your head down and get on with it, and that’s what we are trying to do. We have just got to keep chipping away at it and eventually it will come right for us.”