SOUTHEND United manager Phil Brown is hopeful Anthony Wordsworth will be fit to face MK Dons at Roots Hall tomorrow.

The midfielder – who has scored 12 times for the Shrimpers this season – picked up a hamstring problem towards the end of Friday’s 4-0 win at Chesterfield.

But Brown is hoping Wordsworth will still be able to start against the Dons.

“Fingers crossed, Woody will be fine,” said Brown.

“His hamstring tightened up towards the end of the Chesterfield game but hopefully he’ll still be able to play.”

However, Brown will also be keeping an eye on other members of his squad.

“We operate a red flag zone here and we have eight players in that at the moment, including Woody, so we’re wrapping them up in cotton wool,” said the Blues boss.

“Nile Ranger is definitely in that zone and he’s more or less been in it all season!”

But the Shrimpers will definitely have midfielder Ryan Leonard available again on Monday after he completed a three match suspension for the red card he received against Oldham Athletic.

And Brown is delighted to have Leonard back in action.

“Lenny will be able to spice up the midfield,” said Brown.

“However, if you look at the three midfielders on Friday they were all fired up to try and stay in the team.

“Woody proved once again he’s a big goal threat by scoring his 12th goal of the season and Michael Timlin made more passes than in any game he’s played this season and he had a 90 per cent success rate.

“Will also made a great run to get the penalty and could have got himself a couple of goals if he had that coolness he had in the middle of the season so we certainly have options in there.”