PHIL PARKINSON is hoping to welcome back some of his injured players in the coming weeks.

Tomorrow's clash against Forest Green Rovers at The New Lawn is the first of five League Two games in December and the Reds also host Barrow on New Year's Day.

There are four matches in the space of 10 days over the festive period and although Parkinson has compiled a strong squad, he is currently without a number of players.

Arthur Okonkwo, Rob Lainton, Ryan Barnett, Anthony Forde, Bryce Hosannah, Eoghan O'Connell, Aaron Hayden, Jordan Tunnicliffe and Steven Fletcher are sidelined but the Reds' boss is optimistic some are closing in on a return.

"We have had injury problems," said Parkinson, who rang the changes for Tuesday's EFL Trophy defeat to Burton Albion so that players got valuable game-time.

"Aaron got injured against Yeovil and Bryce picked up something as well.

"Burton would have been a great game for Bryce to play in but hopefully we are going to have a few of the lads back in the next couple of weeks and we are going to need that because the strength of this group is the squad and the depth we have got.

"We are just lacking that a little bit at the moment so we need to get players back available and when we do over the Christmas period, it is going to be a really interesting one."