Stevenage will start the new League One season without Jamie Reid and potentially without goalkeeper Taye Ashby-Hammond - but that just means opportunity according to manager Alex Revell.
The EFL campaign for 2024-2025 kicks-off on Saturday with a home game against Shrewsbury Town.
And while last year's top scorer is laid low with a leg injury, and the keeper has been missing with hand and finger trouble, the Boro boss says the squad assembled at the Lamex is equipped and ready to step into the breach.
Revell said: "Jamie Reid won't be ready for the game but we're hoping that Taye will be.
"It's just a waiting game with Jamie, we're building him up and he's out with the lads, working hard, which is great to see.
"He's in a good place there but we're just building him up as he's missed a lot of training and weeks.
"We'll make sure that he’s ready to go when he's fit and back to where we know he can be.
"Taye has obviously had a little knock and because of what the injury is, we haven’t seen Taye in pre-season unfortunately.
"He's coming back too and will hopefully be back soon. Whether that's Saturday or not, we'll have to see.
"But in terms of other injuries, we're looking good which is fantastic."
Most of the squad have emerged free from major strife, other than Jake Forster-Caskey who is out for a little while, and Aaron Pressley who needed surgery on his ankle after an accidental collision against Watford.
Revell said: "You don't want injuries in pre-season and I think we've seen quite a lot of teams this year coming out of pre-season with injuries.
"We couldn’t help the injury to Aaron Presley because it was a coming together and he landed horribly.
"That's an unfortunate one for us.
"But we’re in a good place and that goes back to the competition in the squad.
"You’re going to pick up injuries and it's how you deal with it.
"You either feel sorry for yourself and mope or you think there's someone else that can go in and do the job.
"And then if they go in there and do a good job, they stay in there and it is the job of the injured player to get back in the team.
"I always think that when you have a squad like ours and the squad that we've built, they all know the roles and responsibilities and they all know what it takes to play in this team.
"So someone else has to step up and that's the way I see injuries. They’re disappointing because we want to see all of our players playing but there's someone else ready to go and to take the opportunity."
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