Injury victim Steven Schumacher getting closer to Stevenage first team return

Influential Stevenage midfielder Steven Schumacher is inching closer to a first team return, according to boss Darren Sarll.

The 32-year-old suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury last season and on Tuesday continued his rehabilitation by playing 70 minutes as a young Boro side fell to a 5-1 friendly defeat to MK Dons.

Of the game Sarll said: “The positives were we saw Steve Schumacher play a lot more game time to get him a little bit closer [to match fitness], there weren’t too many positives apart from that.”

It was a second behind closed doors game in a week featuring the former Bradford City man. A week previously Boro drew 1-1 with a Brentford XI.

“The games are centred around Stevie, I am creating games for him,” said Sarll who has plenty of talents to choose from in his team’s engine room.

“It’s a particularly strong part of our squad, central midfield, going all the way back to [Henry] Cowans and [Dale] Gorman, the younger ones, all the way up to Schumacher, [Michael] Tonge, [Jack] King and [Charlie] Lee, the list goes on.

“The real positive for me was to see Steve get 70 minutes under his belt against some good players that was important as well, I don’t want Steve playing against 18-19-year-olds, I want him to play against other senior players that would have played at his level.

“From that point of view it was a good run-out, he’s getting closer.”