Richie Wellens offers timeline on returns of Jon Taylor and Jordy Hiwula for Doncaster Rovers

The two wingers are back in training, though both are limited to straight line running as they recover from respective ankle injuries.

Wellens had hoped the pair would be up to speed sufficiently to play half of next week’s clash with Rotherham United in the Papa John’s Trophy but feels the game may come too soon and is keen to avoid further injury issues.

He is however hopeful that they could be at a level to feature in some way at Wigan Athletic on September 11 when Rovers return to League One action.

“I was hoping we could maybe get them 45 minutes in the Papa John’s Trophy game,” Wellens said.

“But it might be just a little bit too early.

“We don’t want to rush them and risk them being out for even longer.

“They’re massive players for us. They’re players that have scored double figures in this league, they give us an outlet, and pace and directness that we haven’t got at the minute.”

The Rovers boss is also confident that skipper Tom Anderson will be close to a return from his own ankle injury by the time they visit Wigan.

Wellens is looking forward to the possibility of working with a healthy squad for the first time since his appointment.

And he admits he is particularly keen to stop being forced to put square pegs in round holes in his team selection.

“I’m hoping we might get one or two back for the Rotherham game and we can start working on one or two things as a group together,” he said.

“We’re working on things at the moment that are a bit alien to us.

“Tom Anderson will be more or less close. Jon Taylor and Jordy Hiwula will be close.

“I didn’t want to bring Tiago Cukur on against Rotherham because he’s suffering with his calf but we wanted to get a goal.

“We’re asking Matt Smith to play higher where ideally he’d be one of the eights.

“We’re having to move things around a bit.

“It’d be nice to have a full week on the training ground with everybody.”

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