He said: "We always knew we had a quality squad that would work hard and get us results in the Premiership and the FA Cup, and we'll continue to do that until the lads come back, but really the sooner they get back the better for us.
"We do want them back, and we need them, because there's a lot of lads who have played a lot of games over the past month or so, so when we do get the African Nations Cup lads back, the gaffer will have a few more options.
"We also want the injured players back too, especially Henrik Pedersen and Gary Speed, but it was sad losing Ivan Campo last week.
"It was a massive blow for us knowing he is going to be out for possibly the rest of the season, because over the last two games we could see he was back to the old Ivan. He had a massive smile on his face, and losing him has knocked us back a bit, but this team will always dig in.
"That's the best thing about us, we will stick together and work together to start climbing back up the league.
"We've got a couple of games in hand which, okay, we're not guaranteed to get the points, but we are confident that if we can get back to winning ways they will help us get back into the top six and stay there.
"Maybe even break into that Champions League spot. It's a big task for us but we are looking forward to the challenge."