MAEL de Gevigney could return from injury on Saturday, with David McGoldrick having a lesser chance, says Conor Hourihane who will give Charlie Lennon more minutes later in the season but potentially not loanee Tawanda Chirewa.

Centre-back de Gevigney missed Tuesday’s game at Port Vale due to the headwound he sustained at Burton Albion on Good Friday which has been reopening in every game. On medical advice, the Reds rested him for a match.

Head coach Hourihane said: “We think that Mael will be OK. He’s being assessed day by day to see how much the wound has closed up. But we think that he'll be very close to being available for the game.”

Top-scorer McGoldrick has missed the last two games due to a hamstring issue. He said on Thursday he was hoping to be passed fit. Hourihane added: “If we could get Didzy involved for the last half an hour or so, it would be a great boost. “We'll have to assess him over the next couple of days because it will be a close one whether he makes it. I'm hopeful just as much as he is.”

January signing Lennon has not played in the last four games or been in the squad for the last two. That was after scoring on his debut against Wigan last month then coming off the bench a second time against Doncaster.

Hourihane told the Chronicle: “He’s just not quite getting in there at the minute. I am keen to get Charlie minutes as these next five games come about. Whether it comes sooner rather than later, obviously time will tell on that. He's been fantastic since coming in the building. He's been a real livewire in training and he has just found it really difficult to get to get minutes. We all knew that it would take a little bit of time and his time will come.”

Chirewa is yet to return to action after an ankle injury which has restricted him to just ten minutes of first team football for the Reds following a January loan move from Wolverhampton Wanderers. He has been back at Oakwell in recent weeks.

Hourihane said: “That's been a challenging one with T. He came to the club in January, then was only here for maybe a couple of games and then got injured.

“Then in his rehab back at Wolves, he got injured again. And he's coming back into a situation now where he won't be here next season.

“Fitting minutes into him right now is going to be challenging. You speak about Charlie, you speak about Leo Farrell and the midfield that we played with in the last couple of games. They're the type of guys at the minute right now that you're looking at to get as many minutes as possible because you look at the next season at some stage. Josh Earl is under contract, Corey O'Keefe's under contract, so they're the type of guys that obviously will be at the forefront of your mind over these next five games.”