Charlton Athletic boss on Josh Edwards’ injury and whether that will force transfer window move

Nathan Jones is not expecting Charlton Athletic to delve into the transfer market to cover the absence of Josh Edwards.

The Scottish defender was stretchered off in the first half of Saturday’s 1-0 win over Leyton Orient with ankle damage from a late challenge by Sean Clare.

Former Addicks player Clare was booked for the foul.

We broke the news earlier this week that Edwards was set to face weeks – and not months – on the sidelines.

“It wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been,” said Charlton manager Jones. “I’m not sure there was maliciousness in the tackle but it was a poor challenge. It was a bad one and those are the challenges that need to be stamped out really – they are the ones which can cause serious injury.

“I’ve no doubt in my mind it was an honest challenge, but you need to put in peoples’ minds that they are the ones that cause serious injuries.

“We’re not sure on the timescale but it was ligament damage – no rupture or break which we feared on initial impact.

“I went in and asked the referee afterwards (which Clare was not sent off) – calmly. It’s a difficult job for referees. The frustrations managers have are the big decisions. If there are 100 decisions in the game then I’m going to be unhappy with 50 of them. The opposition manager is going to be exactly the same. It is the big ones they have to get right and there were maybe two of three big ones they didn’t get right.

“The rules constantly evolve and change – to complicate things. So just to say he was poor, poor, poor – you can’t always do that because it is a difficult job.”

The fact Edwards is not longer term has left Charlton unlikely to bring in another player in that position before next Friday’s deadline.

Jones brought on Thierry Small to replace the former Dunfermline player.

“If it had been more serious than we would have (looked to strengthen” said Jones. “Because we want to play a certain way and to have certain attributes.

“The reason we signed Josh is to have real competition for Thierry, he did really well for us last year. People forget that Thierry is only 19-20 years of age. He’s been around for ages. But he still has massive, massive development left.

“Josh is slightly older and slighty more advanced in certain things. We have great competition and it is what we wanted to create in every position.”

PICTURES: KYLE ANDREWS