Bradshaw out to end injury woes

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The 22-year-old has had three separate hamstring injuries this season and was a major doubt for Sunday’s 2-0 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final defeat to Bristol City at Wembley.

Bradshaw won his race to be fit but the Saddlers’ 16-goal top scorer admitted he will undergo a programme to help his hamstrings and avoid further lay-offs.

He said: “It was very hit and miss all week. I was told I only had a 10 per cent chance, at the start of the week, of being fit for Sunday. I have to thank Jon Whitney (physio) massively for putting in all the hours and the treatment for getting me fit.

“It’s been different areas. It’s not actually the muscle of my hamstring, it’s more like the muscle lining which is slightly less of an issue than if it was the muscle but it still is one.

“We need to get to the summer now and I have extensive programme over the summer to strengthen my hamstrings to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Bradshaw lasted 62 minutes of the Wembley final as boss Dean Smith protected him for the run-in with Walsall still only four points above the relegation zone in League One.

“We don’t want to be involved in a relegation scrap. We’re confident we’re not going to be,” said Bradshaw, ahead of Saturday’s trip to Chesterfield.

“We are not going to take any loss of confidence from Sunday, cup games are one-off and we have every belief we are going to go into Saturday and get the three points.”