Brian Barry-Murphy has given an injury update ahead of Dale’s Emirates FA Cup tie at Wrexham on Sunday.
Ollie Rathbone and Rhys Norrington-Davies missed Tuesday’s game against Ipswich Town, whilst Robert Sánchez has missed the last five games.
“Ollie’s was a coming together in the technical area on the hard bit of surface near the dugouts, and he was badly bruised,” said Barry-Murphy.
“He won’t be fit for the weekend. I think it’s more realistic that he’ll be back in training towards the end of the week with a view to Coventry.
“Rhys has had a really tough blow to his ankle. He was carrying a lot of swelling and blood which was gathering inside the joint. He’s 50/50 with regards to playing on Sunday.
“That would be great for us, because whilst we’ve consciously been trying not to speak about the players who are missing, we are missing a lot of players at a time when we need everybody, so to have Rhys back would be great.
“We have Robert Sánchez back from Brighton and back in training with us, so we’re very much monitoring his fitness and hopefully he’ll be available for Sunday as well.”
The Dale boss also gave up an update on Ryan McLaughlin, who was on the bench for the game against Ipswich at the Crown Oil Arena.
“It’s slightly contradicting what I’ve been saying previously in terms of giving players a perfect programme in terms of reintroducing our environment, but Ryan was kind of rushed back and put on the bench because of the numbers we had last week.
“He managed to play on Wednesday in our integration match against Salford and completed 75 minutes, which was brilliant for himself.
“He’s been through and awful lot in terms of the physiological aspect, in being away from the group then coming back multiple times and thinking he’s almost back in training. That can be very difficult for a player and a very lonely path, but he’s managed to conquer that.
“If we get his minutes correct, we believe we can help him get back into first team action sooner rather than later, and he took a huge step on that road on Wednesday.”