MJ Williams should be fit to play his first game of pre-season on Saturday at Chorley.

The midfielder missed the 9-0 whitewash against Longridge Town in midweek with a minor knee issue but is expected to re-join training by the end of the week.

Ian Evatt said the former Liverpool ball-winner was taken out of Tuesday evening’s game as a precaution but is currently pencilled in to play 45 minutes against the club’s Conference North neighbours.

He said: “I would think he would be available on Saturday.

“It was just a little bit of swelling in his knee purely because of the amount of load we’ve had in the first eight days of pre-season that they’ve covered.

“They have covered huge amounts of distances so it’s only naturally that we are going to see one or two reactions, especially with the plane journey. For us big uns, they are not the most roomy of planes! MJ will be fine for Saturday, I would think.”

There was also good news for midfielders Josh Sheehan and Lloyd Isgrove, who are both closing in on a first team return.

Sheehan will not play until mid-to-late July, having been out for several months with a ruptured cruciate ligament, but has recently stepped up his workload in training.

“Josh won’t be ready to play probably until the back end of our pre-season schedule,” Evatt added. “He is doing more and more every day and still progressing towards the physical contact but he is doing all the football work with us now.

Isgrove suffered two torn hamstrings last summer and turned down surgery to try and ensure his next comeback is a permanent one.

The former Southampton winger is making steady progress, however, and won’t be far behind his team-mate Sheehan.

“Lloyd still isn’t ready to join in,” Evatt explained. “He has probably got another three weeks left before he is ready to join back in and train with the whole group.”

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