With defender Ben Barclay edging ever closer to a full return following the 60 minutes he played on Tuesday night, manager Paul Simpson confirmed that midfielder Dylan McGeouch is also stepping things up.

Club News MANAGER: I went along to see him 21 Hours ago

"He's on the grass and doing all of the football work now," he said. "We're hoping that at some point in the next couple of weeks he should be back available for us. I think next week at Penrith will be too soon for him, but we'll see how it goes over the next few days.

"Him being on the grass is a positive. Paul Huntington and Taylor Charters still haven't been back outside, and none of the dates have changed.

"We're still looking at I think end of October for Hunts, end of November for Taylor, but they're all progressing really well.

"The Forest game was really good for Ben. He was always going to play 60 minutes, as I said after the game. He's come through that fine and he's been able to train with us.

"It's a case of him staying fit now, we need to get more bodies available for us. We can't afford to have too many out. We need everybody fit and available."

On the longer-term list is loanee Josh Kayode, who is itching to get back into the fold.

"JJ has been for his latest check-up and he's probably going to take a few more weeks before he can get back on the grass," he said. "We're waiting to hear confirmation, we're still thinking he might be back with us in early November, but he's probably got to take another couple of weeks of doing some non-contact football.

"We'll just assess it as we go along. I think he's just been for his two-week check-up, they've now said he's got to have an extra couple of weeks of being off the grass.

"Whereas we thought he might be coming in by the end of this month, it's probably not looking likely. It'll be November.

"We don't think it's affecting the return to play date, we think it's still the same, we're just waiting to see. It's no change, we're still in the hands of Rotherham's medical people as to what they decide because he's their player."

To watch the Video please enable "Targeting" in cookie settings