Darrell talks about his squads injuries, the lack of first team action and this weekends trip to Dartford
Darrell Clarke has always had a small squad to work with all season but in recent history numbers have been depleted because of injury with the Rovers boss saying that Ollie Clarke's injury isn't as bad as first feared."We had some great news yesterday about Ollie [Clarke], he went to see a specialist and his knee is going to heal in around 2-3 weeks and he wont need an operation.
"That is great news for us because obviously if he goes under the knife then you're looking at 6-8 weeks minimum and we want to have Ollie back because he has scored some important goals for us this season.
"Ollie has been unfortunate in his past with other injuries but for a majority of last season and this season so far, touch wood, he has been relatively injury free.
Stuart Sinclair missed Rovers last competitive game with Woking due to a bruising on his passing foot with Darrell branding Sinclair's injury 'a difficult one'.
"We are getting Stuart's foot scanned because it hasn't healed as quickly as we would have liked.
"It looks a very sore one and it looks like it might be very deep bone bruising or it could be a ligament so we really need to get it assessed now.
"I'm certainly not ruling him [Stuart Sinclair] out of the game on Saturday but we need to make sure that we have a clearer picture initially.
Neal Trotman was another player sidelined through injury after tweaking his hamstring against Torquay on New Years Day but Darrell tells us that he is also back into full training.
"Neal [Trotman] has been back a while now and fit and ready to go and keen to get on with his business which is great for us.
"It is pleasing that he is back as it allows us to have several options for those defensive spots.
Before Saturday's trip to Princes Park rolls around the Rovers squad would have gone almost two weeks without a competitive game and Darrell tells us that it is all about striking the right balance.
"You have to get this right to keep the players ticking over but it is difficult as we train very intensely anyway with a lot of contact work as that is what happens in games.
"The training is pretty intense and you always have to hope that you don't pick up too many injuries but you have got to train how you play and my players certainly do that.
"We tried to schedule a game against Forest Green last week to get some minutes into some of the lads that haven't featured as much but that game got called off because of the pitch so we will be doing some 11vs11 stuff today in training just for some match preparation for Saturday.
Saturday's opponents Dartford are stuggling at the wrong end of the table this season but it is another difficult away trip for Darrell and the squad.
"Dartford is a difficult place to go but it is a very decent setup there and I know Tony Burman does really really well on limited resources.
"They picked up a 2-2 draw in the FA Trophy on Saturday against Halifax who have always been there or there abouts in the league this season and they gave Halifax a really good game so it will be yet another tough game.