Barton Must Wait!

Last updated : 17 October 2007 By Footy Mad - Editor

The 25-year-old, a £5.8million summer signing from Manchester City, has yet to play a competitive game for the club after fracturing a metatarsal at Carlisle in pre-season.

Allardyce:  "Joey has got a slight chance of being in the squad at the very best, just on the bench.

"He is a number of games short yet and still trying to catch up on match practice, but he is working very, very hard to get there.

"Mark (Viduka) joined in training, so he is hopefully going to have no reaction to his calf problem.

"Every manager will be concerned about every player who is going to play for England on that surface if they have got any previous injury history because it can work muscles and find out different areas of the body or weaknesses that grass doesn't do.

"That's the only concern I have regarding that surface.

"Hopefully we do not get any calls on Wednesday or Thursday saying any of those players are injured."