Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Injury boost for Robins ahead of season opener
NIGEL Pearson has confirmed that Kane Wilson is back in training and in contention to face Hull City today having missed Bristol City’s final pre-season game due to a knock.
Wilson was a surprise absentee from the 1-0 win over Bournemouth last Saturday, having been heavily involved throughout the summer schedule, with Pearson later revealing the wing-back had been left out as a precautionary measure.
The 22-year-old was pictured in training footage posted by the club on Wednesday night but in a video released on Thursday, Pearson confirmed Wilson was back on the grass and in his thoughts for the weekend trip to the MKM Stadium.
Fellow wing-back Cam Pring has also rejoined the group having missed most of pre-season with a knee issue, but striker Antoine Semenyo and centre-back Tomas Kalas - as expected - have been ruled out of the season opener on Humberside.
“Kane’s out on the grass again today so he will be in contention,” Pearson told Robins TV. “Cam Pring is out on the grass again today, too. So we’re making some progress there and our availability is pretty good, apart from the likes of Antoine and Tomas, which we’re still a bit unsure of in terms of the timescales but we’re okay.”
Assuming Wilson fulfils the necessary fitness criteria to be selected, he could be one of three new signings in the City XI against the Tigers with Kal Naismith set to start in the heart of defence and Mark Sykes pushing to start in a No10 role.
City’s business has been modest but effective in filling holes in their squad and all three arrived in early June, giving them maximum time to adapt to Pearson’s methods and try and settle at the club and in the area. Certainly over the course of pre-season, that trio have looked among the best and most consistent performers for the Robins as they went the summer unbeaten.
Opponents Hull, in contrast, have experienced a challenging pre-season as Shota Arveladze has introduced nine new signings while former first-team regulars George Honeymoon, Tom Eaves and Keane Lewis-Potter have been sold.
“They’ve made some signings and there have been some changes within their squad,” Pearson added. “Shota would have had some time now to put his own ideas into practice. I’m always a little bit wary of reading too much into our results, their results but come the opening day of the season it will be competitive and we need to make sure our game is in good nick.”
■ City are the only non-Premier League club to have retained their 11 most-used players ahead of the new season in England, PA analysis reveals. They have held on to players who accumulated more than 92 per cent of league minutes in 2021-22, the highest retention rate in the English Football League (EFL), with manager Pearson able to call upon 17 of his 18 most regular picks from last season. Wigan are next on the list for squad retention, with players responsible for 91 per cent of their minutes under contract, followed by Coventry (86 per cent).