Charlton Athletic boss confident of healthy squad options for Wycombe Wanderers

Charlton Athletic look set to be back to nearly full strength for their New Year’s Day game against Wycombe Wanderers at The Valley.

The Addicks have not been in action since December 18 – a 1-0 loss at Plymouth – with Covid-19 cases and injuries seeing the EFL accept their request to postpone fixtures at AFC Wimbledon and Gillingham.

But Charlton manager Johnnie Jackson was able to provide positive news this morning on his squad options.

Akin Famewo, Conor Washington and Josh Davison all sat out the match at Home Park after testing positive for Covid-19.

“It looks like we could have most of the lads that were missing back,” he told the South London Press. “Most of the staff who were missing are back now.

“We’re still waiting on a couple of the boys for the latter part of the week but we will be much healthier and in a better place than we were going into the two games that got called off.

“A couple went down ill straight after that [Plymouth match]. We should have a much cleaner bill of health.”

Centre-back Ryan Inniss, who had been out for nearly four months with a groin injury, played the final 22 minutes at Argyle.

“It [the postponements] have given Ryan a little bit more time,” said Jackson. “He came on against Plymouth but that was probably a much more accelerated programme than we wanted for him. We lost Akin for that game, which was a blow, and Deji [Elerewe] was out. He’s had another period now to get him prepared for the game.

“He’s close to being able to start.

“[Sam] Lavelle is getting closer to training. I think he’ll be back in the group at some stage next week. Adam Matthews is back training now and available. Corey Blackett-Taylor is back with the group and available as well. It gives us a couple more options.”

The Addicks head back into action after a shutdown for a fortnight.

Asked how that break will affect Charlton, Jackson replied: “It’s a bit of the unknown but we were a bit sluggish at Plymouth and we were in the middle of a run of games then. In hindsight that could be because the lads were suffering the ill-effects of Covid. It could have well played a part.

“I hope this has allowed us to freshen up a little bit but we have had lots of lads missing big chunks of training in that period as well. You can’t just throw them straight back in to full blast training. You have to build it up and manage them.

“I hope it means we are fresher when we play on Saturday but I won’t know until we kick off at three o’clock.”