Charlton skipper Jason Pearce: I understand their decision but as a player I want absent teammates to play

BY LOUIS MENDEZ

Charlton will be without Lyle Taylor, Chris Solly and David Davis for the battle to avoid relegation during the Championship run-in – and skipper Jason Pearce says he understands their decision but would have liked the trio to play on.

Striker Taylor and full-back Solly are both out of contract at the end of the campaign and elected not to feature in the final nine games following the return from the suspension of the season due to the coronavirus. Birmingham City loanee Davis decided not to return to London following lockdown to complete his temporary stint at The Valley.

Pearce, who scored the vital winner as the South Londoners earned all three points on their return to action at Hull on Saturday said “It’s been spoken about a lot. I just feel, from a player’s point-of-view, I understand where, again I’m bringing Lyle into it, I understand where the lads are coming from. Some people have to take that stance. They’ve got to look after themselves and their family.

“On the other hand, from my point-of-view as a player and a teammate, I want them to be playing – they’re going to help us and benefit our team. But as soon as Bow said they’re not going to be involved, it just brings everyone together. We know what we’ve got and we’re going to fight for each other and I think that showed today.

“We know we’re in a tough situation and everyone has seen that off the pitch. On the pitch we’re losing players. We’ve got what we’ve got in the squad and we’re all together so we’re just going to give it our best shot.

Boss Lee Bowyer had made the decision to announce which members of his squad were pulling out of the side early on, in order to ensure the news didn’t distract his players too close to the recommencement of play.

“I think it was good for players who are playing in their positions that were not playing,” added Pearce.

“Lyle, for example, him saying he’s not going to play gives Tomer (Hemed), Chuks (Aneke), Macca (Macauley Bonne), all these other players – they know they’re going to get a chance. They’ve got to take their chance.

“Today (at Hull), Macca and Tomer were a right handful up top and did take their chance. Chuks has looked brilliant in pre-season. Other people are getting opportunities now and they’ve got to take them. We need people to stand up and be counted and today they did. We just hope we can do that in the final eight games.”