Charlton striker Lyle Taylor’s minutes against Huddersfield Town will be “limited”
Lee Bowyer has admitted that Lyle Taylor’s game time will have to be carefully managed in Charlton’s home fixture against Huddersfield.
The 29-year-old striker was introduced at the start of the second half in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough – his first action since damaging knee ligaments at the end of August.
Charlton are winless in eight Championship matches. They banked just one point in November.
Taylor’s return is a major boost for the Addicks – he netted five goals in the first six league matches before suffering his injury on international duty with Montserrat.
Asked about his involvement against the Terriers, Bowyer replied: “He’ll be limited. He was limited at the weekend, obviously.
“Then we’ll be looking at Friday for him to maybe play a bit more. We can’t take the risk of chucking him straight in.
“We’ve got to limit him for the first couple and build on him from there.
“I spoke to the physio before half-time [at Boro] and asked: ‘What is the maximum he can play?’. He said: “He can do 45 but Tuesday you’ll have to look after him a bit more’.
“He’s been outside for weeks now running. It wasn’t that – we just needed his knee to settle down. There’s always going to be a risk he could take a whack on it, but that could happen in a month’s time.
“Fitness-wise he was okay to get through 45. I wanted him to give us a bit of a lift and a presence up top.”
PICTURE BY KYLE ANDREWS