Coventry City Vs Cardiff City, Tue 16 Mar 2010

Coventry will assess the fitness of Sammy Clingan over the next 24 hours as they look to leapfrog sixth-placed Cardiff in the table when the two sides meet at the Ricoh Arena.

The midfielder emerged from Saturday`s 1-1 draw against Plymouth complaining of a tight calf and did not train on Monday as he received treatment.

Manager Chris Coleman is hopeful the former Norwich man will be okay but will not make a decision on his availability until Tuesday.

Centre-back Leon Barnett returns from his most recent two-match suspension although he is unlikely to start due to the recent return of Richard Wood, who played all 90 minutes against the Pilgrims after a hip problem.

David Bell also made it on the bench at the weekend after a knee problem and he is in contention again but defenders Ben Turner, Issac Osbourne and Jordan Clarke remain out for the longer-term.

The visit of Cardiff is followed by trips to fellow promotion rivals Swansea and West Brom in the space of a testing week. Asked whether he is tempted to shuffle his line-up, Coleman replied: "Yeah I am, not because anybody has done anything wrong but these games are going to be really tough on the squad and we`re going to need to utilise it."

Gabor Gyepes and Kevin McNaughton are both doubts for Cardiff, leaving manager Dave Jones with a potential defensive headache.

Centre-back Gyepes was ruled out of Saturday`s 1-0 defeat at Leicester with a sore back, leaving full-back McNaughton to come across and fill in.

But now McNaughton is struggling with a thigh strain, meaning Jones could be short of options at the heart of defence.

Captain Mark Hudson (ankle) is not expected to return until around mid-April, along with influential midfielder Joe Ledley (hips).

Striker Michael Chopra serves the second game of his two-match ban for accruing 10 bookings this season, meaning he will miss out at the Ricoh Arena as the Sky Blues look to leapfrog the Bluebirds into the play-off places.

However, Jones has received good news in that the trio of Peter Whittingham, Stephen McPhail and Mark Kennedy - who all returned to action at the Walkers Stadium after lengthy absences - have suffered no ill-effects and should be okay to continue.

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