The Swans start their league campaign in a less-than-ideal position at the back with several players on the sidelines, including new signing Ricardo Santos, Filip Lissah, and Cabango.
The loan signing of youngster Kaelen Casey has somewhat eased the headache for head coach Alan Sheehan with the West Ham defender set to make his debut in the absence of the Wales international, who has returned back to light training this week.
The Swans boss, though, is keen to give time to his captain to prove his fitness ahead of the tricky test on Teesside and will make a last-minute call.
“Ben has missed most of pre-season, while Ricardo [Santos] has gone down after an awkward landing in the Cheltenham game and is going to be out for a while,” said Sheehan in his pre-match conference.
“Filip Lissah turned on his ankle, it happens but it is unfortunate. We have had players fill in at that position over the course of pre-season.
“We have been moving a lot of things around with the injuries, but there is no excuse we will have to find a solution.
“Ben is our captain and a big influence, he has started doing the warm-ups, the strength and conditioning, and joined in a drill, but we will wait and see how that goes.
There is better news in the forward positions, however, with Zan Vipotnik set to return to training following a toe injury, whilst new signing Zeidane Inoussa and fellow wide-man Jisung Eom came through their returns from injury with cameos from the bench against Lorient and will likely be in the matchday squad.
The Swans boss is excited for the big kick-off and his first full season in charge, and is hopeful the trio can play a part come the weekend.
“Zan hurt his toe, but we are hoping he will be on the grass with us ahead of the weekend,” continued Sheehan.
“We are looking forward to Saturday. We have had a good week of training, this is what we have all been waiting for and we are excited to get going.
“We want to be competitive, we finished last season with wonderful momentum, and we got to a place where we had built good character, resilience and confidence within the group and the club.
“I think the recruitment strategy’s been really aggressive. We’ve lost a lot of people from the building. A lot of experience but we’ve brought in some good players.
“Obviously, we got work done early, and then it’s potentially gone a bit quieter as the market changes and in different places. So within that, we’re still trying to get stuff done.
“But I think everybody at the football club is aware that we need a couple more bodies.
“We want to evolve, we want to become a better team, a team that Championship teams play and know they are going to be in for a difficult test.
“In order to be successful you need to gain momentum over a period of time.
“That means the players, the staff, the fans, everybody. You can’t have anybody pulling against the current, we need everybody to be on the journey and on that one road.
“Our ownership are fully onboard and there is a lot of positivity around the club.”
[Lead image: Swansea City FC]
