Whittingham fired up and ready to play

He told the club's official website: "I'm fit and available for selection. I trained on Thursday and it went okay, so hopefully I'll be in the squad.

"The injury came at a bad time for me. It had been niggling me for a couple of games. It kept troubling me and then settled down within a week and it was okay Saturday to Saturday.

"It finally forced me out of the team, but it's all fixed now and I should be available for the long haul."

He added: "We need to start picking up wins. We played really well against Middlesbrough, when we battled it out, and then it all went wrong again at Ipswich on Tuesday. We need to be consistent."