Charlton Athletic striker will miss Accrington Stanley opener
Chuks Aneke will miss Charlton Athletic’s League One opener at Accrington Stanley tomorrow.
But Addicks manager Ben Garner says that the frontman should only be a short-term absence from his squad. Mandela Egbo (knee) is also unavailable
Aneke came off with calf issue in Friday night’s 3-0 win over Welling at the South London club’s training ground.
Garner has confirmed that summer signings Conor McGrandles and Jack Payne will be included in the travelling party. A knee injury had limited McGrandles’ involvement in the pre-season programme but he did face the Welsh outfit last weekend. Payne, signed on a free transfer from Swindon Town, got his first minutes in the same fixture.
“Conor and Jack, both will be in the squad,” said Garner. “Chuks has a little strain in his calf, which isn’t anything major. I can’t imagine it being any more than two weeks, but he’ll obviously miss tomorrow’s game. He’s recovering well and working hard on his recovery.
“Accrington are an established League One team, John [Coleman] has done an incredible job. They’ve evolved. They’ve got some good footballers and they pose a threat with their restarts and long throws etc – they gave Sunderland problems last week with that.
“We need to be aware of that. We know they are going to be high energy and fight – we need to do that better than them to get a result. It’s important we try and get those wins on the board early. We need to show a bit of humility. We’ve got no divine right to go to Accrington and play how we want to play, we have to earn that right.”
Garner named Jayden Stockley as club captain with Eoghan O’Connell the vice.
“There was good leadership in the group when I came in and we’ve added to that,” said Garner. “O’Connell was captain at Rochdale last season, Conor McGrandles was captain at Lincoln, Jack Payne was vice-captain at Swindon last season.
“I was really impressed with Jayden from day one. To see his character around the place, how he drives himself and he’s at the stage of his career where he wants to help others as well. He understands how important the performance of the group is to help him in his own career.
“He’ll be key to us on the pitch this season as well.”
PICTURE: KYLE ANDREWS
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