Coventry City have mixed team news with Mark Robins revealing that his squad has been hit by illness this week as they prepare to entertain Stoke at the CBS Arena. The Sky Blues boss would not go into detail or specify which senior players have been affected as he looks to get his side back to winning ways after four straight Championship defeats.

As far as injuries go, however, captain and midfielder Liam Kelly could be available again after returning to training following a spell on the sidelines with a hamstring strain, but centre-half Kyle McFadzean is not expected to feature following the loss of his mum earlier this week.

Asked if the illness was significant enough to affect his selection this weekend, Robins said: "Of course it will. If you've got illness in the camp people can't perform at the maximum and that has an impact. We've had people off and a fair bit of illness throughout the camp and this time of year is never great."

As for the injured players, the manager is hoping a clean bill of health is not too far away.

"There are some who are showing good signs of starting to come back," he said. "We're now just Fabio Tavares (Achilles) and Kasey Palmer (adductor) away from having a fully fit squad. Fabio's getting there. He's on the grass and will join in fully after this international break.

"And hopefully Kasey will be the same."

He added: "Liam Kelly is back in training and around it again now."

Meanwhile, asked if Callum O'Hare is ready to start a game after three cameo displays from the bench following ten months out with a serious knee injury, the manager said: "I think that there's still more to come from Callum but he's obviously getting closer all the time and those performances won't have done him any harm whatsoever, and will have given him plenty of confidence, I'm sure.

"I said right from that start when he first came in and made his comeback game or comeback appearance that it would have been a benchmark for him. That's something that he's overcome, a lot of adversity this year with the injury and everything that he's had to work towards. And that gives him that goal to get back playing. Now it's a case of getting back to the level that he was at prior to the injury but that will take time anyway. But he's looking okay."