Walsall v Sutton - Match preview

Joe Riley, Ross Tierney and Jamille Matt are set to be in contention, although Johnson will miss out after breaking his toe.

Meanwhile, Harry Williams (muscle) and Aramide Oteh (hamstring) remain unavailable.

“Jamille (Matt) is back in, Joe Riley is back in. Ross has had another good week with us,” Walsall boss Mat Sadler revealed.

“A bit of bad news with Danny (Johnson). He broke his toe, which means we’ll have to do without him at the moment.

“He’s seeing a specialist either today or tomorrow so we’ll find out more off the back of that.

“It’s tough for him, but hopefully it’s not as bad as what we heard at the hospital to begin with because they were talking a bit longer.

“Hopefully the specialist brings that down a little bit but we’ll know more after that.

Sadler added: “Harry went out on the grass during the week and was a bit sore off it. We’ve just reduced him a bit so I think he’ll come back out on the grass again next week.

“He’s probably another five or six days behind where he was. We’re probably not talking the weekend.

“We’ll see for Gillingham but probably more likely the week after that.”

Walsall have been afforded the luxury of a two-week break since the 3-1 defeat at Stockport, after last weekend’s home fixture against Accrington Stanley was postponed.

The visit of Sutton will be just their fourth fixture this month, whereas February will see the Saddlers play seven times.

Sadler has been taking advantage of the extra time on the training ground, and was also at Mansfield to scout this weekend’s opponents on Tuesday night.

“Last week was more hindered because of the weather but that was the same for a lot of clubs,” he added. “This week has been great and we’ve spent some really good time on the training ground. We need that as we build our loads up for playing Saturday and Tuesday again.

“The lads needed to do the work this week. It’s been a timely relax in the weather for sure, and it’ll be the same again next week.

“It’s all building towards the tough log of fixtures ahead. But without looking ahead to that, we’ve got another tough game on Saturday against a team that Steve (Morison) is starting to get going.

“He’s changed the way that Sutton were earlier in the season. I went to watch the Mansfield game on Tuesday.

“Although the weather hindered it somewhat, it was a game that they started really brightly, and changed shape during it.

“You could see everyone is fighting for it and working hard for him.”