Dean Holden provides update on fitness of Addicks trio including Mandela Egbo absence

Dean Holden has explained why Mandela Egbo has not been part of the last three Charlton squads.

The Addicks full-back suffered a quad injury back in October. He made his comeback with an appearance off the bench during the 4-1 win at Morecambe last month but hasn’t featured since – not even being named amongst the substitutes.

The Charlton boss also provided updates on Todd Kane and Sean Clare – the latter limping out of the 6-0 win over Shrewsbury on Saturday.

“Mandela Egbo, he came in on the bench and then we left him out to utilise Sess (Steven Sessegnon) on there,” said Holden.

“Last weekend’s game, he felt something on the Friday, so we left him out of the squad but that’s fine, he’s trained all week.

“Today, Ryan [Inniss] went into the game with a small knock. He declared himself fit this morning and was excellent. We felt we needed an extra defender on the bench so we went with young Zach Mitchell and Sess. We were proved right as we needed Sess for Sean’s injury.

“Sean has rolled his ankle in a tackle. He had a bag of ice on at half-time so we’ll see how much that may or may not swell up and whether we need a bit of time to get that right.”

Coventry loanee Todd Kane suffered a hamstring issue during his Addicks debut back in January.

Holden added: “Todd Kane is progressing in the right way. He’s trained with the team in the last three or four days. He’s been out for ten weeks. Today was too early for him but there’s a game on Tuesday night against Welling [in the London Senior Cup].

“It’s going to be a proper game in terms of a crowd, maybe what you don’t get in a normal u21s. That will be a good game for Toddy to play in as well as a couple of others who need minutes.”

PHOTO: PAUL EDWARDS