SEAN Dyche says it was minor injuries that kept a handful of his senior players out of Burnley’s friendly win at Fleetwood on Tuesday night.

Nick Pope, Ben Mee, Robbie Brady and Ben Gibson were all missing as the Clarets ran out 2-0 victors against Joey Barton’s League One side.

Steven Defour also didn’t feature but is a longer term absentee.

Pope had a minor groin issue and had played 90 minutes in the defeat at Crewe on Saturday, Joe Hart taking the gloves for the full game at Fleetwood.

Mee was missing for the second game running but Dyche is not too concerned and the defender could be involved at Wigan on Saturday.

“Ben Mee has got a minor groin thing, nothing major so hopefully he will feature later in the week and get some football this weekend,” said the Clarets boss.

“We are just keeping an eye on him, he has had a few down days.”

Gibson picked up an ankle knock at Port Vale on Saturday and although he managed to finish the game, the centre half was not risked on the Fylde coast.

The 26-year-old will be hoping to get back to action sooner rather than later having made a stuttering start to his time at Turf Moor due to a hernia operation last year.

“At Port Vale he turned his ankle and was a bit unfortunate with it,” Dyche said.

“He managed to finish the game with some strapping but at this stage we have got to be careful with all the players.

“It is actually settling down really quick, we are not sure on the timescales but he is a super fit lad so hopefully it will settle down quickly. He just couldn't make it (at Fleetwood).

“I don't think it is serious, we think he is a quick healer. Last year was different, he had to have an operation on his hernia but this is a standard roll of the ankle.”

Having scored at Port Vale, Brady was absent at Fleetwood with a rib injury.

“We are just being careful with him, it is nothing too major,” said Dyche.

“He got a bang on his ribs, bruising and a bit of stretch in the ribs so we are not going to force players who are not quite ready at this moment in time.”