Matt Taylor has revealed that Bristol Rovers have a couple of “question marks” going into this weekend’s home game against Wigan Athletic while there’s still uncertainty towards how significant a role Kamil Conteh can play having only just returned from international duty with Sierra Leone.
The 21-year-old midfielder returned to The Quarters for the first time since before the 2-0 win over Cambridge United on August 31 on Thursday afternoon to report for individual training having endured a number of long journeys within less than a fortnight. Conteh also got some game time while with the Leone Stars, coming on as a substitute in a goalless draw against Chad before starting in a 3-2 defeat away to Zambia in their opening qualifying matches for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations.
Prior to last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Barnsley, the 21-year-old had played 100 per cent of Rovers’ minutes in League One this season and, in an ideal world, Taylor will be able to integrate him into this weekend’s team in some capacity.
When asked about the latest injuries, the Gas manager said: “We have a player who missed the first half of the week through illness, another player’s not trained since the weekend. He’s had a scan but it’s not shown up anything too serious so certainly a couple of question marks going into the weekend on the back of the international fixtures. Kamil’s not trained with us, he’s literally just returned. He’s going to do an individual session out there to see where he’s at.
“He’s flown through the night and had several flights in the last 10 days alongside some game time so a few question marks. I think a lot will become clearer tomorrow.
“He did have a whack on his leg in training as well. I’ll try and leave as much of it as possible to the medical experts. I’ll speak to Kamil as well but more than likely he’s not in a position to play 90-plus minutes. It’s if he does play and if he does feature, what capacity that’s in and what it looks like. You don’t want to put him in that risk bracket.
“He’s a young lad, he’s been through a lot in the last 10 days. Great that he gets to represent his country but whenever he goes on international duty, it’s what state he comes back in.”
Last weekend saw Luke McCormick replace Conteh, with the 25-year-old more attack-minded than the Sierra Leone international. However, Taylor could be able to throw in Jamie Lindsay if the returning midfielder is unable to start. Lindsay hasn’t featured since the goalless draw at Rotherham United having sustained a medial knee ligament injury.
However, the 28-year-old is now back in contention with Taylor revealing: “He’s trained this week. He’s maybe, not a week ahead of schedule, but he’s in contention. We spoke about Kamil’s situation, we would have liked him available last week but he’s certainly in contention. The good thing with the injury is that nothing’s flared up in the week of training so far so that will be a discussion tomorrow.”
Additionally, Jack Hunt hasn’t featured yet this season having picked up a hamstring strain ahead of the campaign opener against Northampton Town a month ago. However, the right-back has been pictured in training and Taylor confirmed the 33-year-old has recovered from injury but it doesn’t seem as though he’ll be featuring any time soon, adding: “He’s returned from injury. He’s back training with the group. We don’t expect him to feature in the near-future.”
Discussion about this post