Slade hopes to complete a signing tomorrow

ORIENT boss Russell Slade is set to make a move into the loan market in time for Saturday’s home match against Rochdale.

The O’s manager has a few new injury problems and explained: “I’m trying to get somebody in, with injuries and suspensions starting to kick in I just need to strengthen things up a bit.”

Slade has a target in his sights and hopes to complete the deal tomorrow (Thursday).

“We are coming into a busy period with two games a week and hopefully something will happen in time for Saturday,” he said.

Leading scorer Scott McGleish seems certain to miss the weekend’s match and Slade added: “It looks as if Scott could have a couple of broken ribs.”

McGleish is not the only striker who is set to miss out, as Jonathan Tehoue’s stop-start season looks as if it has hit the buffers again.

“Jonathan has not trained all week and has gone down with a virus,” admitted the O’s chief.

Tottenham’s on-loan striker Paul-Jose Mpoku also looks certain to miss the match after he came off with a hamstring injury at Swindon Town on Saturday, lasting just 17 minutes of what was his full league debut.

“We feel it’s a short-term rather than a long-term injury, but the weekend will come just a little too quickly for him,” said Slade.

But the O’s chief is hoping that Mpoku will be available for Tuesday’s trip to Colchester.

Defender Charlie Daniels is another injury concern, but the O’s boss is hoping the former Tottenham defender will be fit for the weekend.

With midfielder Matt Spring and defender Elliot Omozusi both just one booking away from a suspension, the problems are starting to pile up for Slade.

But, although the O’s go into Saturday’s game in the bottom four, they have lost just one of their last six league games and have taken nine points in the process.

“You have to look at the positives and I think we’re playing well and we should have more points on the board,” he said. “But we’re paying for our poor start when we had just four points after six games.”