Detailing the injuries after a busy weekend with two games in three days, John explains:
"We had a casualty with Michael Carrick at the weekend; contrary to what some of the newspapers have said he actually did pick up a mild hamstring strain on his right thigh.
"We had a scan done on the Tuesday - due to it being a Bank Holiday weekend - that revealed the mildest of muscle strains that you can have, which was good news for us because it was quite incapacitated on Easter Monday when we woke up at the hotel for the Crystal Palace game.
"The scan reveals that no fibres have been torn and there is no bleed but there is a swelling round the muscle fibres which generally indicates that there has been a strain to the muscle rather than a tear.
"This sort of injury would normally be expected to settle in 12 or 14 days so we are hoping that at this stage next Thursday he would be back training in preparation to travel to Stoke.
"Andy Walker looked after him on Sunday and Monday when we went away with the team, and he has had a soft tissue specialist see him at half past six on Tuesday evening after he had had the scan on Tuesday afternoon.
"He was in yesterday morning and afternoon and there obviously isn't much of a chance of him playing this weekend in the home game - but there is every chance of him being available for Stoke."
As for Matthew Etherington, John adds:
"Mattie slipped a week ago today in training as he was going to play a ball off his right leg; he overstretched his groin.
"He had a scan on that one, and again at this stage we are hopeful that he will be available for Stoke."
Steve Lomas missed the second of the two Easter games after making his comeback on Saturday, and John adds:
"Lomy played 90 minutes on the Wednesday in the reserves and then 90 minutes against Derby on the Saturday, getting through a lot of work.
"Sometimes it is a very thin line between what is very bad muscle soreness and what is a muscle strain, and the manager felt that it was too much of a risk to take to play him in the one game on the Monday and then maybe lose him for the next four - and I agree totally.
"But he is out there training today and he will hopefully be available Saturday and for the remaining games of the season."
Regarding Don Hutchison, John says:
"Hutch has had a personal tragedy this week with his mum passing away so he has had a couple of days back at home.
"It has been compounded by the fact that his father only passed away last year.
"But he is training today and hopefully he is available as well."
There is good new about Rufus Brevett, and John reveals:
"Rufus is doing great and I am handing over responsibility of him to Peter Grant and the football people who have worked hard with him.
"He did a football session on Wednesday and gradually there will be less of me and more of the football now.
"If we are successful in getting in the playoffs he could feature in those games."
Elliot Ward has come through two reserve games after missing the season with a back injury, and John explains:
"He has done fantastically well and the major responsibility for that is the good consistent treatment he has had from Andy Walker in the Academy.
"I think, like any player, Elliot didn't realise how serious his problem was at first.
"But I think Elliot will be a better player as a result of this because the treatment and the rehab he has had to do has made him very single-minded.
"He has been on his own a lot, travelling to appointments on his own, and he has been ostracised from the squad because of his injury although we have done everything we could to keep him involved.
"He has been travelling with the squad sometimes but unless you are playing you don't really feel part of it.
"I think it will give him that determination to think: 'My career was close to finishing at a very early age and I have now got a second chance.'"
Regarding Richard Garcia, whose contract is due to end this summer, John says:
"It is going to be a long haul with a second cruciate ligament injury on the same knee.
"He came back in six months from the other one and I think it is more likely to be eight or 10 months for this one to be sure.
"That is certainly what the Australian surgeon thought the prognosis was going to be.
"Richard will go back to work with the people over there in May for the summer and I am not really sure, contractually, what will happen after that."