Weekend briefing: Ins, outs and injury doubts for this week's matches

Ins, outs and injury doubts for the weekend's matches.

McCall considering Novak recall

Bradford City boss Stuart McCall may have to recall Lee Novak ahead of schedule just to put some firepower on the bench against Carlisle in League Two.

Three-goal Novak is the club's top scorer despite having missed ten games with a calf strain.

He won't be match-fit but McCall is without crocks Billy Clarke and Kurtis Guthrie while attacking midfielder Gareth Evans is also out, so the Scot may have no choice.

The Bantams' boss said he was "down to the bare bones" in Tuesday's 2-1 loss to Cheltenham which saw City drop to 22nd in the table. Another frontman, Bryce Hosannah, is a doubt after limping out of that game.

Last week the Yorkshire club lost defender Reece Staunton for three months after pulling a hamstring.

Haaland blow for Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund's hopes of challenging Bayern Munich for the Bundesliga title have been hit by the news that top scorer Erling Haaland is out for at least a month.

The ten-goal Norwegian has a hamstring problem while Dortmund boss Lucien Favre also has a defensive headache going into Saturday's showdown at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Thomas Meunier limped out of last weekend's shock loss to Cologne, Marcel Schmelzer was already sidelined and now centre-back Mats Hummels is nursing a bruised foot sustained against Lazio in the Champions League.

Saints come marching back

Southampton are set for a triple injury boost as they head along the south coast to take on Brighton on Monday.

Five-goal top scorer Danny Ings, who picked up a knee injury in the 4-3 win at Aston Villa a month ago, is set to return.

And boss Ralph Hasenhuttl also has Nathan Redmond available again a month after the winger tweaked his hamstring.

There's more good news for Saints with Ghana defender Mohamed Salisu, a transfer-window signing from Valladolid, fit at last.

Preston to miss Bauer power

Preston boss Alex Neil says he has to act in the January transfer window after centre-back Patrick Bauer was ruled out for the season.

Minutes after scoring the winner in North End's surprise 3-2 win at Bournemouth on Tuesday he went down with an Achilles injury which will sideline the German for six months.

Midfield star Billy Bodin has also been ruled for months with a knee injury while Louis Moult, Paul Gallagher and Andrew Hughes are also missing.

Full-back Darnell Fisher must also sit out Saturday's home game against fellow strugglers Wycombe because of a ban.

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