Glyn Hodges said that Rod McDonald and Adam Roscrow are vying for game-time when Wimbledon return to action at Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.
McDonald (pictured) and Roscrow both staked their claims by getting valuable minutes in midweek at Molesey to give our manager extra options for the trip up north. Both players have made encouraging returns after shaking off knee and thigh injuries respectively.
However, Anthony Wordsworth (calf strain) is not yet ready and Kwesi Appiah’s ankle injury is expected to keep him out for six to eight weeks, as we reported previously.
Speaking in his Thursday update from the training ground, Glyn said: “Rod played the full game on Tuesday, so he’s had 45 minutes in one game and 90 minutes in the other. He will be in contention, so that’s good. Adam Roscrow also came through an hour on Tuesday. We are getting some players back now and looking a bit stronger. We’ve lost Kwesi so we might even be looking to bring Tommy Wood back from his loan because we thought Michael Folivi would have been back by now. We are short of two strikers so it’s timely that Adam is back. That’s good for us.
“I feel sorry for Kwesi because I felt he was in a good place. I thought he was effective as he had come on and scored the other week. He was doing well, but now he’s out for six weeks. That’s football though and you have to get on with it. He just jumped up for a header in training and rolled his ankle.
“I expected Anthony to be around it for this weekend, but I don’t know quite how long he will be out for. He has been out on the grass today and I get daily updates from ‘Dougy’ so I will find out how he is and when we are going to pitch him back in.”
Wimbledon head into Saturday’s important match having had plenty of time to prepare after exiting the FA Cup and our manager has enjoyed working positively with the squad.
“You want to be in the FA Cup, but it was a hectic two weeks before the break with midweek games,” added Glyn. It was nice to get that win against Gillingham and have a nice break, before planning what we were going to do in terms of moving forward. It’s been enjoyable, we gave the boys a weekend off, which they don’t normally get, so hopefully they are nice and fresh. We’ve been working hard this week to put things in place for Saturday. We’ve been working on all aspects of our game and it’s nice to get a two-week block of good work with no thoughts of a game because it means you can just concentrate on what you need to do.
“They (Bolton) will be smarting as it’s been a fortnight since they last played. I am expecting a reaction from them after that defeat. It’s always a tough place to go, but we are going into it off the back of a good result with a clean sheet so confidence is high. We will be having a go. Every game is important, no matter what stage of the season it is. You are fighting for points and fighting for your lives. We know that every game is an opportunity to win. They have ground to make up, but they have more than a good enough squad to do it. The manager has recruited well and they are a strong team. It’s a tough game, but one we are looking forward to.”
Look out tomorrow for an interview with Adam Roscrow on working his way back into contention after a tough start to his AFC Wimbledon career.