First team physio Tim Maynard had encouraging news regarding skipper Alex Woodyard, in a comprehensive injury update from the training ground.
The midfielder hasn’t been able to play for us this season, due to his right calf, but he’s been stepping up a return to action at our New Malden training base.
“It’s nice to see him back out there, buzzing around the pitch with the lads," said Tim. "I’m sure he’s delighted about that as well and can’t wait to get fully going, which is really not far away now and wonderful news.
“With someone who has been out for as long as he has, it’s important that we have some sort of element into building him into what he is doing – rather than just allow full rein. It’s a matter of balancing how much he does in each training session.
"Myself, Chris McConnell (Sports Scientist) and the coaching staff have been making sure that load is a transitional period. That way it flows, and his body can tolerate what it must when it comes to playing matches.
“We’ve had a few setbacks along the journey, which has been super frustrating for everyone involved, but he’s worked really hard and been really diligent with his work and what he’s been up to, in terms of the entire process since that injury.”
Defender Alex Pearce, who has been wearing the captain’s arm band for most of the time for this campaign in Woody’s absence, may also not be far away from his return to Dons colours.
“Pearcy injured his groin playing against Bradford in the first few minutes,” said Tim. “Fortunately, it’s nothing too severe. It’s taking a little time to settle, but he’s almost there or thereabouts at the moment.
“We just need to start exploring what he can do, with the ball and in terms of running. We need to figure out his timeline and his availability for potentially Walsall or Sutton and go from there really.”
Goalkeeper Nathan Broome has been making incredible progress with his foot injury and working with a combination of Tim and Goalkeeping Coach Ashley Bayes.
“Broomy is on the cusp of being there or thereabouts too,” said Tim. “He shouldn’t be too far away. Potentially, he’s doing certain modifications next week with a potential view for a full week of training the week after that. He’s probably just two weeks away, so not bad really."
Striker Nathan Young-Coombes (knee), who made a great start to life on loan with us, is back with his parent club Brentford.
“He’s back there with their medical staff,” said Tim. “They are working hard with him. It’s something that quite often happens when a player is on loan that they sometimes return to their club – sometimes they stay, sometimes they go back. Under these circumstances, Nathan has gone back to Brentford.
“He’ll be flying along, and I’ve been chatting to him weekly, just catching up and seeing what he’s doing. It’s all positive and going in the right direction, but he’s probably going to be about two months or so until he’s ready to come back to the club and start training with us.”
Tim also provided us with the very latest on long-term injured defenders Will Nightingale and Paul Osew, as well as the return to action of many of our talented youngsters. You can see the full update below, via the link to our official YouTube channel.