Glyn Hodges said that he expects Luke O’Neill and Paul Osew to be in contention for a hectic spell of fixtures that starts with Sunderland at Plough Lane on Saturday (1.00 pm kick-off).
In addition to Saturday games, Wimbledon have midweek matches in the next three weeks, and Glyn today reported that Luke (pictured) and Paul both joined in with the rest of the squad at New Malden. Our manager also had positive news on Terell Thomas with the defender due to leave hospital after suffering with illness.
“Luke and Paul trained today, so they are back and signed off. It won’t be long before they are match fit and we may find them on the bench sooner rather than later. With the games coming thick and fast they are available, fit and training, so they come into my thinking. In a perfect world you would give them a month, but we have a lot of games coming up.
“It’s just Ben Heneghan and Terell out. They are the concerns at the moment. I spoke to Terell this morning, and he’s either going to go home today or tomorrow. He’s been in hospital for a bit now, and it’s just a viral infection with a few complications. It’s not Covid-related at all, so it is something that we hope he shakes off as he is a big player for us.”
Glyn expects a tough challenge tomorrow at Plough Lane against a Sunderland side aiming to push higher up the table with their promotion ambitions having been hit by too many draws. Our manager added that the Dons will be well prepared – and he praised his backroom team for keeping the squad in good shape this season.
“Sunderland will be stronger," said Glyn. "A few of their players had Covid the last time we played them and they were not at full strength, but they have got them all back now. They are a strong team and the manager has got them playing good football. We’ve seen video footage of them playing, and we know what to expect. It’s up to us to take the game to them and see if we can get three points.
“We had a great start to the season, but we lost points, and it could have been an even better start. Now we are in a spell when we are not getting the results, but we won at Bristol, and we had played better than that and lost. We are going about things in the right way, the boys are confident, and it just needs something to turn. All we can do is roll our sleeves up and work as hard as we can. Everyone at the club is doing that.
“While it’s going to be a tough run of games, I am more than confident in the backroom staff to get the boys fit and ready. From pre-season right the way through they do their work and they are hands on. There is always a plan for each player and there is a method in what they do, so it has been a breath of fresh air.
“We changed it up a bit on Tuesday and it’s something we look to do. We do it during games, so we mix things up, and today the training session was bright. The boys are buzzing and there’s a lot of confidence at the moment.”