Fantastic four set to give City a boost!
QUARTET DUE BACK AFTER INJURY
MARK Robins was due to see four more of his Coventry City players back in training this week to give the squad a much-needed boost ahead of the festive schedule. Three of the returning personnel have not yet kicked a ball in anger for the Sky Blues this season and will be welcome additions to the first team mix as the club heads towards the midpoint in the season.
Striker Jordy Hiwula, left, will help ease the current striker crisis when he returns to the fold – City forced to play Saturday’s FA Cup tie at Colchester United with just one fit and available frontman, Amadou Bakayoko, due to on-going injuries and suspensions – while long-term casualties Jamie Allen, Jodi Jones and Josh Pask will ramp up competition in the camp for the second half of the campaign.
“Jordy was still not right,” said the City boss, explaining Hiwula’s absence in Saturday’s 2-0 victory in Essex.
“But he’s due to start training this week. Jodi Jones should be joining in as well
if his thigh is okay and Jamie Allen and Josh Pask will also be joining in, so there are four more closer to fitness, which is good.”
Hiwula has been out for three weeks with an ankle injury but if he gets a full week’s training in he should be available for Saturday’s League One clash with Rochdale at St Andrew’s.
The other three, however, are still a few weeks away from a return to the senior side, all needing to build up their sharpness and fitness in full contact training and test their respective recovered injuries, while also getting match minutes in the Under-23s and possibly next week’s Birmingham Senior Cup tie at non-league neighbours Nuneaton Borough.
Summer signing from Burton Albion, Allen, is yet to make his competitive debut for the Sky Blues due to a deep tissue muscle strain that has been almost impossible to treat apart from rest.
The exciting midfielder, who was expected to be a key member of the team this season, sat out the first six weeks of the campaign but broke down within minutes of his attempted comeback in the Under-23s, forcing another extended and frustrating spell on the sidelines.
“The first time he did it he was out for six weeks and then he played in the 23s and it went again,” said Robins.
“So this injury is clearly something we have to be careful with. Clearly it will be with kid gloves this week and see how he goes, but he’s another week closer to being fit.”
Jones, meanwhile, has been out for almost exactly a year with a re-rupture of a cruciate knee ligament injury.
He broke down against Peterborough United last November, just two months into his return from his first ACL injury suffered in 2017.
He has been making good progress but had a little setback last week when he suffered a muscle strain to a thigh. Former West Ham United Academy graduate Josh Pask, meanwhile, was signed in the summer to add defensive cover at centre-half and right-back.
He underwent surgery on an ankle injury in August, a situation that prompted City to draft in Tennai Watson on loan from Reading to provide cover.