Wednesday evening’s game will be City’s fourth match in 10 days after a hectic start to the season, but the focus is getting players who missed much of pre-season back to full fitness.

“Ivo Pinto and Wes Hoolahan had long breaks in pre-season but they are on the right path,” Farke told the media at the pre-match press conference. “Ivo is such a good player and will be important this season, and he only had one week in training. He had 70 minutes in the Carabao Cup game but you can’t play two games in five days after missing so much of pre-season – he can play, but not two games in four days. They will both hopefully be 100% after the international break

“I don’t like to rotate and to change after a setback, especially at the beginning of the season. The guys need to be trusted and to find rhythm. But we have four games in nine days and three in six days, so for that I think it’s necessary to bring some fresh legs on the pitch. Wes will be fresher, as will Josh Murphy and Mario Vrancic.”

Farke also revealed that Alex Pritchard had a successful operation on his ankle yesterday, but he will be sidelined for 12 weeks while he recovers. The Head Coach also offered updates on Timm Klose, who was injured in City’s pre-season match at Cambridge United, and youngster Jamal Lewis.

“There was a little setback with Timm, but probably he can start with team training next week,” Farke said. “Hopefully we can have him back for Millwall, but we’ll see. Jamal still some problems with his knees. It’s still swollen, and he’s got a date with the specialist. Hopefully it’s nothing too dangerous, but we’ll wait for the diagnosis from the specialist.”

New signing Tom Trybull played for the U23s in Monday’s defeat to Brighton at Colney, while Harry Toffolo also stepped up his comeback with 45 minutes. “Harry can return to first-team training,” Farke said. “Trybull has been working on his endurance and he improves every day but he needs one week or 10 days to be up to where we want him to be.”

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