Having got over my knee injury, I've now been laid low by a chest infection.

I tried a bit of running on Monday from one end of the training pitch to the other and the knee felt fine. Unfortunately, I was coughing and spluttering afterwards like a 60-year-old with a 60-a-day smoking habit!

It's been bugging me on and off for a couple of weeks but I'm now on my second dose of antibiotics and hopefully that will do the trick.

They say that bad luck comes in threes and as well as the injury and illness, last week the family cat got run over by a car and suffered a broken pelvis. Luckily it survived but that just capped a difficult time and we're hoping that's the end of our problems.

The manager has got some selection problems for the FA Cup because of the amount of players unavailable. We've got quite a big squad but it's been decimated this week.

Not being able to take part is very frustrating for me but as I've said before, I've been lucky for the past few years and barely missed a training session. There are a lot in a worse position.

But obviously with so many of the lads being out through injury, illness or suspension, it does make it hard for the gaffer to pick his best team.

At least we've shown in recent weeks, that we can cope with adversity after going down to ten men in our last two home games. Hecky's sending-off, like with G against Chester, looked very harsh.

It's disappointing because you'd think that with the large following we get at home, we would be on the good side of a few dubious decisions, but at the moment they seem to be going against us.

The Tranmere game is a nice distraction from the league and there is the chance to get into the third-round draw when you could be up against anyone.

Changes will have to be made but those who are picked will certainly want to grab the opportunity to stake their claim for a regular place.