Dean Holden has issued an update on the fitness of Eoghan O’Connell, Jojo Wollacott and Chuks Aneke ahead of Saturday’s game against Lincoln City in SE7.
O’Connell and Wollacott have been sidelined with knee and finger injuries respectively, while Aneke pulled out in the warm-up at Fratton Park on Sunday after feeling something in his hamstring.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Friday, Holden said: “Eoghan O’Connell has trained for the last couple of days. He’s been out for 10 weeks so he’s not up to speed yet but it’s good to see him back with the group. He’s a big player for the club.”
“Jojo Wollacott has had the wire removed from his finger and that’s gone well. The surgeon was pleased with that so we now need to make sure the finger heals. As soon as that’s the case we can step him forward and move him back into training in the next couple of weeks.”
“It was obviously disappointing what happened to Chuks at Portsmouth. At the minute he is still with the physio team rebuilding his fitness and making sure that he gets a period of time on the training pitch before he comes back into the group and be ready to have that impact from the bench or from the start for us.”
Meanwhile, the manager was pleased to see Conor McGrandles and Terell Thomas figure in the U21s’ 3-2 triumph over Hull City on Thursday.
“Conor’s been out for a period of time and he needed to get some minutes into his legs,” explained Holden. “That was a planned 60 minutes for him and that was a real positive in what was a good performance and an excellent win as well for the youngsters.
“Terell needed minutes as well,” he added. “He’s been out for a long time. He played 45 minutes at Oxford and he managed to get himself 90-plus minutes which will benefit him.”
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