Why James Coppinger will miss Doncaster Rovers' trip to Swindon Town
James Coppinger suffered a calf injury during the warm-up ahead of Doncaster Rovers’ win over Blackburn Rovers last week.
The veteran will be out of action for the next few weeks with the issue, boss Darren Moore has revealed.
“Copps picked up his injury in the warm-up at Blackburn,” he said.
“Even though he was sat on the bench, we couldn’t use him.
“If you looked more closely I think he had his slippers on because he was never going to come on.
“It’s unfortunate for him. These things happen.
“Because we were in isolation before and people couldn’t go anywhere, once you get back into training and you're tweaking those muscle fibres.
“You have to integrate players back in because their bodies have been stood still and all of a sudden they’re back working.
“You learn from the sports science with how you go forward.”
While Coppinger is set to be missing from Rovers’ trip to Swindon Town on Saturday, Moore is expecting to be able to call on Jon Taylor and Matt Smith once again.
Both players tested positive for Covid-19 between Christmas and New Year. Taylor struggled to shake-off the after-effects of the virus in time to feature against Blackburn while Smith was still in quarantine.
“Tayls is fine and ready to go,” Moore said. “He’s back with the squad and ready.
“Matt is fine. That’s been another one where we’ve had to integrate him back in this week.
“He’s just got to pick back up his physical levels to where we need them to be.”