Gerhard Struber has provided an injury update from the Bristol City camp ahead of the Reds’ Ashton Gate clash with Leicester CityBristol City have been without Jason Knight, Cam Pring, Max Bird and Rob Atkinson at points this season(Image: EFL and Getty Images)

Bristol City will decide on Tuesday if Jason Knight will retain his place in the Reds’ line-up against Leicester City, Gerhard Struber has confirmed, with the Austrian providing updates on his captain, Cam Pring, Max Bird, Rob Atkinson and Joe Williams.

The Robins welcome Marti Cifuentes’ side to Ashton Gate on Wednesday evening as they look to get back to winning ways in the Championship. After 19 games, Leicester find themselves 14th in the table, seven places, but just two points, adrift of Struber’s boys.

City came close to stretching that gap further at the weekend, but the controversial decision to deny what would have been a late Zak Vyner equaliser in stoppage time meant that the Reds were beaten 1-0 by Millwall at Ashton Gate on Saturday afternoon.

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Though events after the final whistle overshadowed the action on the pitch, the meeting with the Lions saw Knight return to the starting line-up for the first time since September, having overcome a groin injury, whilst Pring again featured from the bench in the closing exchanges.

Although Knight came through his 64 minutes of football unscathed and Pring has impressed Struber in training, the Robins head coach still plans to manage both players’ workload carefully to ensure they remain fit for the long term, starting on Wednesday.

“Right now, it looks really good,” the City boss said on Knight’s condition on Monday afternoon. “He has not [had] a reaction after the game, so I think we did, at the moment, really good with the load plan that we had.

“We’ll have tomorrow again a speech with Jason, and then I will decide, what is, in the end, what is the right thing for him; not only for the short term but the long term. We are in a good exchange, everything looks really, really good right now, and we will decide tomorrow, together with the medical team.

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“He is so game-intelligent that he can deal very quickly with what the game needs, and he can produce this, in a way, that we have a big benefit,” Struber continued to Bristol Live. “At the same time, I would say we have to be careful.

“The injury that he had, it is 95 per cent healed and is ending. It looks really, really good at the moment, but we have a little bit of a risk, and in this way, it’s important that we give him the load [so] that he can grow, but we risk not a new injury.

“I think it is a little bit of a similar topic at the moment with Cam Pring,” he added. “But also, this looks really, really good. He’s really close. He knocks very hard on the door – also today, in the training session, he was really good.

“He is super close at the moment and maybe close to getting more gametime on Wednesday night.”

Cam Pring’s last start for Bristol City came in last season’s play-off semi-final(Image: EFL)

After a difficult few months in terms of injuries in the City camp, the Robins appear to finally be reducing the number of players on the Ashton Gate treatment table. Alongside Knight and Pring, Harry Cornick returned to the matchday squad against Millwall, whilst Josh Stokes has recovered from a fractured metatarsal to complete a week of training.

Still, however, a handful of first-team players remain sidelined. Williams and Luke McNally are both expected to be ruled out until the new year with a hamstring and knee injury, respectively, while the Reds have been hopeful that they’ll be able to call upon both Bird and Atkinson before 2025 is out.

Late last week, Bird could be seen in footage posted to City’s social media channels alongside his teammates as they headed out of the HPC for a training session.

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Struber, naturally, is reluctant to put a timeframe on when exactly the midfielder and Atkinson are expected to return, but insists both players are progressing well in their recovery, with a return before Christmas not impossible for Bird.

“This looks really good with Maxy Bird and also with Rob Atkinson it looks really good,” explained the head coach. “Joe Williams needs some weeks more, but also he is much better at the moment.

“[It’s] a good picture, but I am a bit careful to say maybe Birdy is involved in the Middlesbrough game. This could be maybe a chance in front of Christmas that he gets a little bit of game time, but it’s not clear at the moment.

“But the situation looks good, also for Rob Atkinson. Hopefully, this goes in this way, and we have more very interesting players back in our squad.”

OPINION

OPINION