Barnsley say Ben Williams injury not as bad as first feared but he still joins long injury list for Stoke City trip

The defender was on the wrong end of a high Phillip Billings tackle in Saturday's 3-0 win at Bournemouth. For a player who has had a serious knee problem in the past it was a particular concern, but the news seems reasonably positive.

"Fortunately it's not as bad as we thought at the beginning," said coach Markus Schopp. "For the next game he is definitely not an option and probably the weekend but we will decide it day by day."

Jordan Williams and Obbi Oulare are back in training but Amds Andersen is still some way off.

"I guess with Mads it could take a couple more weeks," commented Schopp. "We don't hesitate with that because we know how important he is as a player for us so we have to get him fit as soon as possible.

"Jordan Williams started (training) on Monday and joined on Tuesday. He will not be available on Wednesday but I guess he will be back soon."

Summer signing Oulare's integration has been delayed by visa problems and the fact he has not played competitive football since January but he is now working with the group.

"He's training - not always with us, he's also working with the (fitness) coaches," said Schopp. I guess it will take a bit more to get him fit enough to see him. He is a player that can give us something but for that he has to be 100 per cent fit."

Remy Vita, who joined from Bayern Munich on deadline day, is in the country and working with the group, but it seems unlikely to the left-back will be thrown in at Stoke.

"He came in on Monday late at night and joined us on Tuesday for the first time," said Schopp.

"He's at a different level to some other guys so we have to figure out for Wednesday. We're glad he's in and we have him in training but it's always the same, the guys have to understand how we want to play. It was the last session before the match so he got a bit of an insight but it takes a bit longer probably."

Midfielder Josh Benson is set to miss the next couple of games after it was finally determined he does have Covid-19 after conflicting test results.

"Twenty-fours hours before the game with Bournemouth he was positive, then he was negative, then he was positive again and it was a bit of a mess but now we know he's positive," explained Schopp.

"He's fine. He's taking care of himself and the symptoms are not that bad. Hopefully he can do his exercises at home and when he's out of quarantine he will join us again."