Josh McEachran's early withdrawal at Wycombe was done as a precaution as the Brentford midfielder felt a twinge in his groin.

The former Chelsea man, who suffered two broken metatarsals in the past 12 months, was taken off early in the first half at Adams Park on Tuesday night.

And head coach Dean Smith revealed that McEachran would have carried on had it been a competitive fixture and, instead, took the better safe than sorry approach.

He said: “Josh just felt his groin. I stressed to the players right from the start of pre-season that if you feel anything to let us know because we don't want it to get worse.

Groin injury: Josh McEachran

“He felt if it was a normal game, he'd have carried on. The early signs seem very good on that.”

Maxime Colin needed patching up and played most of the game in a head bandage after sustaining a cut to the head.

Smith said, with tongue firmly placed in cheek: “I think his front cover magazine days are over. He needed a cut – he was too good looking anyway. He got a little nick on the head.”

Sam Saunders, Nico Yennaris, Scott Hogan and Akaki Gogia all missed the pre-season friendly, which ended 1-1 as John Egan's first-half strike was cancelled out by Dayle Southwell, and Smith revealed they were all carrying slight niggles.

He revealed: “Sam has tweaked a medial ligament which is not a long term thing. He's out on the training ground with us but repetitive ball striking flares it up. He's got a softly softly approach.

Cheeky: Scott Hogan makes it 2-0

“Nico felt his thigh so we didn't want to risk him. Scott Hogan jarred his ankle so we didn't want to risk him.

“Andy Gogia has got a sore knee as well. It's not ideal because with the B team away in Denmark, we'd ideally played a few of them and not had 90 minutes for some of the lads. I'm sure some of the lads will appreciate doing 90 minutes.”

Alan Judge is still absent as he recovers from the broken leg sustained from a horror Luke Hyam challenge at Ipswich in April.