INJURY UPDATE | Robinson hoping for boost before the new year

George Jones reports

Karl Robinson hopes to have some of the club’s injured players back at his disposal in the coming weeks.

The Addicks are currently without Declan Rudd, Chris Solly, Johnnie Jackson and Ricky Holmes and – speaking to the local media ahead of Charlton’s trip to Bradford City on Saturday – the Manager provided an update on their fitness.

“They’re big losses but we’re hoping that we’ll be able to start easing them back in soon,” he said.

“We are hopeful that Chris will train tomorrow [Friday]. Hopefully he’ll get hard sessions in tomorrow and Saturday, and then he may even make the trip to Milton Keynes on Tuesday. We will have to wait and see.

“Jacko will train today. With Ricky, there may be some integration into the group after the FA Cup game. I’d like to have him back before the turn of the year.

“Dec is out and doing a bit of training at the moment. He is in the middle of that rehabilitation period. You can see that it is close but not quite close enough, for me. I’m a little bit greedy!”

The Manager was asked about the nature of Holmes’ injury and whether it could give him any long-term problems.

He said: “Whenever you have any kind of metatarsal injury, normally it is quite conclusive.

“It’s one that there is always a timescale on and once he is back I can’t foresee him breaking down. He will come back into the group when the medical staff deem him ready.

“He was obviously a big signing in the summer and is influential in what we do going forward. To go without him in the last few weeks has been a big loss for the football club.

“I believe that once he is back, once Jordan Botaka is up to full speed and once we can do a couple of things in January, with the fire power that we have and the support that we give our wingers, we’ll have a really exciting group.”

Robinson also paid tribute to the club’s backroom staff, who he has been working alongside for almost a fortnight now.

He said: “Nuge [Kevin Nugent], Clarky [Simon Clark], Chris [O’Loughlin] and Lee [Turner] have literally worked their socks off. The medical staff – Ali [Thrush], Carl [Serrant] and all their support team -  I want to go on record to say thank you to all of these people.

“They have really stood up to the task, have been challenging me and I’ve been challenging them. Inside this club, there are some fantastic, professional people.

“It has been a pleasure to learn off them and learn together with them. Hopefully the players can see the intensity that the staff are working at and hopefully we can take that onto the football pitch.”