Injury crisis rears it's ugly head before a football is even kicked

David Martin, Daniel Powell, Ben Reeves and Dean Bowditch missed out on the final pre-season friendly of the summer on Saturday as Dons went down 4-1 to Stevenage, leaving the manager to scratch around for a starting line-up, and indeed a full substitutes bench, for this weekend’s League 1 opener against Shrewbury.

Martin came through an hour against Liverpool’s U21s on Monday night and should make it in time, but there is still a question mark over Powell’s fitness before the trip to Greenhaus Meadow.

Reeves and Bowditch are certain to miss the game, with Reeves expected to be on the sidelines for a lengthy period after limping off against Everton in last week’s pre-season friendly.

It has made preparation for the season’s curtain raiser troubled, with the defeat at the Lamex Stadium on Saturday highlighting more problems than solutions. But Robinson says his side will be ready.

He said: “People will look at the result at the weekend and will say it isn’t good enough, and elements weren’t.

“But we’ve had a really good look at that, we’ve had a meeting with the players to go over things, and we know where we are now.”