Nigel Pearson says Kane Wilson will be fit to face Hull City after the wing-back sat out of Bristol City's impressive victory over Premier League Bournemouth.
The new signing was the one notable absentee from the side as the Robins remained undefeated in pre-season with a 1-0 victory over the Cherries thanks to Chris Martin's second-half penalty.
City were tight and resolute at the back in the first half with Alex Scott fashioning the best opportunity of the match when his close-range effort from Mark Sykes' deep cross was well clawed out by keeper Mark Travers.
Dominic Solanke and Ryan Christie threatened up the other end, with the latter seeing an effort hacked off the goalline by Sykes who slotted in at right wing-back in the absence of Wilson.
Four minutes into the second half and it was Chris Martin who grabbed his second in succession after the referee pointed to the spot when Andi Weimann was bundled to the ground. Rob Atkinson's ball through the defence looked for the run of the Austrian and Chris Mepham clumsily came across to leave Weimann floored.
Martin, who missed a spot-kick against Cheltenham earlier in pre-season, stepped up and hammered it into the top corner to give City the lead. Ironically, City have now had more penalties in pre-season than the entirety of last campaign - perhaps the tide is changing?
With attention now turning to Hull, Pearson claimed Wilson missed out with a minor knock and was pleased with how his side showed discipline to keep Bournemouth at bay.
"He's fine, he's okay," Pearson said regarding Wilson. "He just got a bit of a knock in training yesterday. He's got enough minutes in pre-season so it was good to get Sykes out there today. He'll be fine for next weekend."
Speaking on the performance, Pearson added: "I think the first half, in particular, was excellent. Our passing, ball speed and rhythm was very good. Organisation-wise we were excellent too so I was very pleased with what we needed to get out of today.
"We've been very careful in trying to give our players the same amount of minutes throughout pre-season on the pitch so it has worked out pretty well for us.
"Pre-season games mean a lot in terms of getting into good habits, performance-wise. Of course, I'd rather win games than lose them of course but it really matters from next week onwards. I've been very pleased with the application of the players and their desire to improve on where we finished last season."
Scott, who returned to the starting XI for the first time following his England Under-19 Euro success, started in the No10 role behind Martin and Weimann in the attack.
Pearson was reluctant to add whether that would be his prime position heading into the new season and instead highlighted the flexibility he has in forward areas particularly with Sykes coming in.
He added: "As long as he's fit. I'd just like to see him play. It's nice to have different options. I don't feel the need to pigeonhole people and say where they definitely need to play but we've got more options now in terms of versatility within the squad.
"Already Mark Sykes has shown what he can bring in different positions. Andi Weimann has done that over a sustained period. Scott has got so much ability he can play where we need him to play. It just gives us different dimension to how we can set up."
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