Bristol City handed significant injury boost as defender nears end of 19-month injury nightmare

Liam Manning has received a major injury boost ahead of Bristol City's trip to Blackburn Rovers on Saturday, revealing that Rob Atkinson is back in contention for the Robins and could see an end to his 19-month injury nightmare.

The 26-year-old centre-back has been sidelined from competitive first-team action since February 2023, when he picked up an ACL injury against Sunderland. This issue saw the former Fulham youngster miss the remainder of the 2022-23 campaign along with the entirety of last term.

Atkinson played a regular part in pre-season - featuring in friendlies against Wolves, Newport County and Cheltenham Town. Yet, a minor issue sustained in late July further delayed his comeback.

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But the defender is now fit and firing and is eager to compete for his spot in Manning’s backline ahead of their trip to Blackburn this weekend. Despite insisting Atkinson is available for selection, the Robins boss remains mindful following his recent injury history.

“He’s now in contention.” Manning told BBC Radio Bristol. “It’s one of those where he’s in a position to compete to get into the team but at the same time you have to be mindful of what the past 18 months have looked like in terms of the sheer volume of training, the volume of match minutes.

“He’ll want to compete and rightly so we want that from everyone but at the same point you have to respect people’s recent history.”

Along with the return of Atkinson, Manning will also have deadline-day signing Luke McNally at his disposal for his side’s visit to Ewood Park.

The 24-year-old, who arrived from Burnley for a fee in the region of £1.75million on the final day of the transfer window, was named on the bench for the Robins’ 3-0 defeat against Derby County a fortnight ago. Although the defender played a full 90 minutes for the Clarets in the Carabao Cup two days before his Ashton Gate arrival, Manning believed his lack of match minutes was a key reason why McNally was an unused substitute at Pride Park.

“Yeah he is,” the Robins boss replied when asked whether the centre-back was ready to start for City. “It’ll be a tough decision because (Kal) Naismith did well when he came on against Coventry and for context Luke hadn’t played 90 minutes until Wednesday and took a little wack to his knee. That was the first 90 minutes he had in five weeks so being able to get him in, get the work into him physically as well as tactically as to how we want to play has put him in a good spot.

“We’ve got a great group here, he’s interacted and fitted in really quickly. He’s already got an established relationship with Scott Twine and some of the other lads and has fitted in seamlessly.”

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