Mandela Egbo’s Colchester switch helps free up space in Charlton Athletic squad

Charlton Athletic’s attempts to taper down the size of their squad were aided by Mandela Egbo’s permanent transfer to Colchester United on Tuesday.

The Addicks were happy for the 25-year-old to move on in the summer transfer window with youngster Nathan Asiimwe the first-choice pick on the right of the backline.

Ben Garner was instrumental in bringing Egbo to Charlton last summer after working with the former Crystal Palace academy product at Swindon Town.

Now the pair are reunited at Colchester and Egbo made his debut in their midweek 2-0 reverse to AFC Wimbledon.

Egbo suffered a knee injury in the 2022 pre-season programme at Dartford and had other niggles which restricted him to 15 appearances in all competitions.

He had not played a competitive minute for the Addicks this season before his switch to the U’s.

“Mandela wanted to play first-team football and he had an opportunity [to do that],” said Charlton manager Dean Holden after Tuesday night’s 2-1 defeat to Bristol Rovers at The Valley. “It frees up a little bit of space [in the budget] to do something.

“There is only a couple of weeks in the window to go and we’re desperately trying to bring the right players to the club. Everybody who has been at the last two games can see where we are falling short a little bit, but also see lots of positives there.

“We have got a bit of work to do.”

PICTURE: KEITH GILLARD