George Francomb poised for return
George Francomb is set to return to Wimbledon’s squad for tomorrow night’s League 2 match against Southend United.
Speaking to Dons Player this afternoon at the training ground, Neal Ardley confirmed that the on-loan Norwich midfielder (pictured) had shaken off a shin injury that caused him to miss the last two Wimbledon matches.
However, Neal Ardley admitted he has limited options at the moment due to a lengthy injury list and the Dons boss is looking to strengthen his squad before the emergency loan market closes later this week.
“We played three strikers on Saturday because we had to,” he said. “A look at the injury list tells you all you need to know. It was the best 11 that I could put out on Saturday and unfortunately it did not quite gel. It was not a decision that we made. With the Christmas period coming up and the fact that George Francomb and Steven Gregory will be going back before then, it is certainly something that we need to look at. But we only have three days to do it and we have a game in the middle of that so it is by no means easy.”
The Dons entertain an in-form Southend side tomorrow night with Paul Sturrock’s men now closing in on the play-off zone after an impressive 4-1 win at Torquay United on Saturday. And Neal Ardley is under no illusions that it will be a tough task to contain their threat.
“It will be difficult as the reports we had said that they played very well and caused Torquay all sorts of problems,” he added. “We are going to have to be on it as a team to make sure that we get something from the game. We got a point on Saturday and we probably would not have got that from a similar situation six weeks ago. We hung in there and showed a bit of grit and we have to take the positives from that.”
The video interview with Neal Ardley can be viewed on Dons Player, along with the thoughts of Jack Midson about taking on his old club Southend.