Dean Holden has provided a positive update on the fitness of Joe Wollacott, Michael Hector and Chuks Aneke ahead of Saturday’s clash against Fleetwood Town at The Valley.
The trio all gained valuable minutes in the U21s’ 2-1 triumph at Bournemouth on Tuesday.
“The timing was good for that - Michael had trained for a couple of days and he was fine for the 65 minutes he got,” explained Holden. “He showed everything that we thought he would – not just his quality but his leadership and communication to help Deji [Elerewe] and Harris [O’Connor] next to him.
“We had a period of time with Chuks following his late withdrawal during the warm-up at Portsmouth and we needed to get some real conditioning in him. He is approaching the end of his four-week period of that now and he gained an important 65 minutes on Tuesday.
“That’s why that game was important so thanks to Bournemouth for accommodating us on that. Chuks is probably as close as he has been for a long time, he’s looking okay. As well as the youngsters, we had some good feedback; I couldn’t get to the game as we were training but Andy [Scott, Technical Director] was there with one or two coaching members.
“Mentally for Jojo that was important,” the boss added. “He’s been training for a week or two now and he needed that game for confidence as much as anything. Again, fantastic that Jojo got through it and he’s in a good place.”
The Addicks will continue to assess Steven Sessegnon, who is managing an ongoing knee issue.
“We have to keep monitoring Sess,” said Holden. “He was fine on Friday night down in Exeter and then by Saturday morning his knee had swollen up a bit. We looked at the training week he had off the back of the injection he had on Monday and we’ve changed it slightly this week. He didn’t train today [Thursday] but hopefully he will do some light training tomorrow and we will assess him as he goes.”
Meanwhile, full-backs Todd Kane and Mandela Egbo have both stepped up their respective recoveries.
“It was a real hive of activity out there today - we had the U18s out on one pitch, the U21s on another and the injured lads doing their rehab. Todd was out running with the fitness coaches and Manny is in a good moment as well – he’s out at the moment with the fitness guys, too.”
Charlton return to The Valley on Saturday, February 11th to take on Fleetwood Town (3pm KO GMT). Click here to purchase your tickets.
