Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell says injured trio could return 'in weeks'

Motherwell boss Stuart Kettlewell says he hopes to welcome players back to his squad in coming weeks, as he prepares for the visit by Celtic for the Saturday lunchtime kick-off.

Senegalese left-back Pape Souare trained this week and could be part of the squad for today’s Premiership clash, and Kettlewell says others are nearing a return who have been ruled out for longer terms.

He said: “Pape Souare has managed to train this week, so he will give us another option.

“You have the likes of Souare, Connor Wilkinson coming back into the fray, and then hopefully in the not too distant future, we’ll start to see guys like Mika Biereth, Calum Butcher and Jon Obika start to appear closer to the first-team squad.”

Meanwhile, Kettlewell says having a strong unity amongst his players has been a major factor in how they have performed in recent months, resulting in top performances in games against Rangers and St Mirren, even if they ended in 1-0 defeats..

He said: “There’s not a lot broken.

“I believe over the two games we should capitalise on some of the chances that we’ve created, but I’ve been involved in teams before where we start to think, as coaches, that we need to work on our finishing.

“But sometimes you look beyond that, you say we’re not getting into those opportunities, we’re not keeping possession of the ball, the team’s not functioning well.

“I don’t sit there with that, and I sincerely hope that doesn’t rear its head on Saturday, of course.

“But in terms of how we are functioning, all facets of the game are looking very good and looking very strong, other than the fact that we need to capitalise on the opportunities that come our way.”

Kettlewell added: “At no point does the individual supersede the team and our