The pair have not featured for MK Dons since their return to England last week

Neither Nathaniel Mendez-Laing nor Aaron Collins have featured in MK Dons’ pre-season friendlies since the club’s return from Croatia but there is no great concern over either.

While Mendez-Laing played in the opener against Maidenhead United and then scored the goal against NK Istra out in Europe, Collins has been absent from the off.

It has been illness which has ruled the Guatemalan out of games against Tottenham on Wednesday night, and then Arsenal and/or Wealdstone on Saturday but for Welshman Collins, injury has kept him out.

Suffering a blow to his ankle on the eve of the first pre-season game against Maidenhead, it was a similar injury to the one he picked up against Newport County back in February and kept him out for a few weeks. With that in mind over a repeat injury, he has been kept out of elements of training, but has been ramping up his involvement over the last week and was 50/50 on appearing at Wealdstone.

Assistant head coach Richie Barker confirmed: “The day before the Maidenhead game, Charlie Waller fell on Aaron and he tweaked his ankle - the same one which kept him out for a few weeks towards the end of last season.

“He has trained with us and there was a toss of a coin as to whether he was going to play today but I think he’s had a tough session back in Milton Keynes instead.

“Coming back from an ankle injury, this would not have been the ideal surface to play on. I saw a number of lads from both teams get the ball stuck under their foot.

“When you’ve had a tweak on your ankle ligaments, that could open it up so we’ve made a good decision I think.

“With a bit of luck, he’ll have made it through today’s session, he’ll make it through Monday and he could be in contention for Tuesday at Barnet.”