What? "for family reasons"?

As for tomorrow's re-arranged clash with the Clarets, Grant had two more names to add to the casualty list - defender Jason Shackell picked up a knock on his hip while Jurgen Colin is definitely out "for family reasons".

"Shackell's got a knock that he got at the weekend and we'll give him up until the last moment," said Grant. There appeared to be no immediate prospect of throwing Gary Doherty back in. He needs a hernia operation leaving Grant to toy with either giving youngster Michael Spillane his big chance in his favoured role or else handing Andy Hughes the chance to add to his collection of City positions - from right-back, to centre-midfield, to left-back, to centre-half in the space of eight days.

Scottish Under-20 international Andrew Cave-Brown could then make his first-ever Championship start at right-back in Colin's absence.

Doherty - like thumb victim Simon Lappin - has a date with the surgeon. Be it sooner or later.

"It's a hernia that everybody gets and he's been carrying it for weeks. And he finds it very difficult to strike a ball so we'll wait and see how it settles down. I'd probably let him go and get it now, but just with the amount of bodies that we have right now, I've got to be very careful. But if I didn't need to use him, I wouldn't use him," said Grant. "That's the way it is at this moment in time - he's responded well to treatment, but whether it's next week or the summer-time he will definitely need an operation."

All of which leaves big pressure on skipper Adam Drury to shrug off his dental nightmares. Taking those pain killers so late in the day on Saturday is an exercise neither manager nor player is about to repeat.

"Taking tablets before the game for the pain had an adverse effect on him and he wasn't feeling that great in the warm-up, but I just felt we had to start it with the group that we had. But 43 seconds, it was the wrong call. But we'll see how he is.

"It is a difficult one. He feels alright in himself - it was just that dizziness he had. Maybe it was a reaction to taking the tablets so late, but he had to kill the pain somehow. But with just ten minutes to go, I didn't want to start shifting everything round about again and it nearly came back to haunt me. But, thankfully, we got away with it. I'll not be making the same mistake again."

Needs might must, however. "I'll give him every chance. With the amount of bodies we have, it's not ideal - in an ideal world he wouldn't be involved," said Grant, making one point very clear.

Robert Earnshaw will not be starting. Not yet. "Ideally I would have liked not to have had him on the bench - I'd probably still say that he's two weeks away. I was looking at Southampton, maybe Sheffield Wednesday - and just to get him a period of the game for the psychological benefit just for himself.

"So having to put him on with 25 to go at the weekend wasn't ideal. He's still well short; we know that; we've got to be very, very careful with him."

Andrew Cave-Brown will be here later; as will 'The Expert'. Veteran City striker Dion Dublin will be popping in first thing tomorrow with his thoughts on the Clarets clash.

And if you're not travelling to Lancashire, remember that you can keep fully up-to-date with events at Turf Moor via our exclusive 'Matchday Messages' text service. Just text 'WAGHORN' to 81025 for instant team news plus half-time and full-time opinion. All weather permitting, of course...

Posted By: XXL16, Apr 16, 11:39:37