Key trio to miss Dons’ early season games, Manning confirms

The injury to Tennai Watson is worse than initially though, Dons’ head coach admitted
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MK Dons will travel to Cambridge United on the opening day of the season without three key men, Liam Manning has confirmed.

Mo Eisa’s ankle injury has long been known, while Tennai Watson’s hamstring injury, picked up against King’s Lynn ten days ago is worse than initially feared, with both expected to miss a significant chunk of the first half of the new campaign.

Daniel Harvie too will miss the trip to the Abbey Stadium and more after he suffered a knee injury late in the play-off semi-final second leg against Wycombe Wanderers. The Scot however is out of his knee brace and was back running on grass once again last week, but will need a pre-season catch-up camp in order to make up for the time he lost.

“Dan is progressing,” Manning confirmed. “His knee brace is off and he's running/ He'l take time and we won't see him this weekend. He needs to take time to come back into training and then playing.

“Mo is a longer term one. That type of injury takes a while to recover.

“T is a really unfortunate one. He came back in excellent shape, he was excellent in the first half against King's Lynn too. We're really disappointed, and he'll be out for some time with the injury he has. We won't be seeing him for a little while.

“We don't want to rush them. Sometimes, the eagerness of their characters wants them to rush back but in the longer term, it's detrimental for the players with the increased potential of a repeat injury.

“We'll get them back as quickly as possible, but so they're able to come back and stay back.”

The trio aside, Dons will be making the 44-mile trip to the Abbey Stadium with a full-strength side after their five week pre-season campaign.

Manning, who has overseen the rebuild of his side, said he is pleased with the way his side have come through the training programme he and his coaches have put the players through, believing his squad are in a good spot to hit the ground running.

He said: “We want to go to Cambridge with as many fit players as possible and I think we've hit that sweet spot so far, in terms of stretching and pushing the players, but we've given them rest and recovery to get over the work we've done as well.”

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