It's funny pre-season because I always feel as if I'm busy but don't have much to report. I'm probably just trying to convince myself I'm earning my massive wage packet. I definitely earned it when I was mopping out the dressing rooms on Tuesday.

To be fair to me, I have had quite a few players with me over the past couple of weeks, even if most have them have just been for a few days. As I write this, I've got Danny Coyne, Chris Greenacre, Gareth Edds, and just to make sure all the players with me aren't really nice men and decent human beings, I've also got Chris Shuker. Shukes is recovering well from the knee injury he sustained against Liverpool. He had a scan a couple of weeks ago which showed a bit of a muscle tear at the back of his knee. He finished the match ok but I think he did it running up the tunnel trying to get Steve Gerrard's autograph. It was a bit embarrassing really, Shukes tugging at the back of his shirt shouting can I have your autograph Steve and Gerarrd patting him on the head saying he'll always sign things for ball boys. Shukes won't be involved today but should start training again soon so, with a bit of luck, will be available for the start of the season.

Chris Greenacre pulled a calf against Morecombe and definitely won't be involved today. I've only had one look at it so am not sure how bad it is but it doesn't look too good. Let's just hope I'm wrong, again. Danny Coyne also tweaked a calf during the warm up for the Morecombe match so we decided not to chance him and played Achterbung instead. I suppose it's a bit like sending in the minions during battles to save your big guns for more important times. A scan revealed a slight muscle tear so we won't be risking Danny today and will leave him out of training until the middle of next week. Fingers crossed he will be ok for next Saturday.

The other player I have with at the moment is Gareth Edds who trained today but isn't back yet so I don't know if he will be involved today. At a guess, I'd say he won't have got through training without a twinge so won't be involved today as it will come too early but again, may well train properly next week and be available for Swindon.

I need to apologise profusely to Ben Chorley's girlfriend Alicia. When he told me his girlfriend was pregnant I thought I would pass on the good news to you all but forgot to ask him which girlfriend it was. Consequently I picked the wrong one and reported it was Leticia who was, unsurprisingly, amazed to hear the news but not half as surprised as her mum. Anyway, it's Alicia who is about to give birth within the next 2 weeks, or there again it could be Marcia?

Just to finish, I've been asked by George O'Callaghan to advertise the fact that he's looking for a 4 bedroom house somewhere on the Wirral he can rent. He doesn't want to pay more than £500 per month, needs to be in a nice area and the neighbours have to be ok with him parking half a dozen gypsy caravans on the drive when his family come over from Cork. Oh, and it would help if he was able to rotivate the lawn and plant a few ton of King eddies. |If you have anywhere, just phone the club and ask to speak to him.