Ahead of Tuesday night’s meeting with Stoke, Rob Edwards confirmed that the Town will be without Teden Mengi, Amari’i Bell and Shandon Baptiste for the foreseeable future with the trio picking up recent injuries.

Centre-half Mengi has had an operation on a knee problem and will be missing for a couple of months.

“He’s in a positive frame of mind and he’s on the long road to recovery,” said Edwards at his Monday press call.

“It’s frustrating for everyone. After the Fulham game, the advice from the consultant was to have surgery but Teden felt that option wasn’t for him and he wanted to do it differently; and you can’t force anyone to go under the knife.”

Bell, meanwhile, will be out for a few weeks after a scan revealed he has a low-grade hamstring issue and Baptiste, who reported a tight calf in training last week, has a problem bigger than first feared and is also likely to be missing until the new year.

“I don’t want to make excuses but it does make things challenging when you have a number of first team players out,” said Edwards.

The boss will continue to be without the services of Reece Burke, Reuell Walters, Alfie Doughty and Liam Walsh as the Town aim to maintain their steady form on home soil against Stoke.

“They have some good players and a clear way of playing,” Edwards said of Tuesday’s visitors. “They have plenty of youth and experience in their team.

“We didn’t lose against Swansea but it wasn’t a great performance and there wasn’t a great feel about the place so to put on a good display and earn three points and get some feelgood factor back would be great.

“But we’re realistic, we can’t just click our fingers and everything is going to be perfect. However, our message to the players has been to be brave and take more risks in the right areas, especially at the top end of the pitch.”