Charlton Athletic boss keeping exact injury news under wraps ahead of Forest Green Rovers match

Ben Garner is set to have extra selection options for Charlton’s home game against Forest Green Rovers.

Chuks Aneke, Mandela Egbo, Ryan Inniss and Steven Sessegnon have all been sidelined with injuries and missed the recent 3-1 loss to Bolton Wanderers.

But Garner did not give individual updates on any of them in his pre-match press conference before tomorrow’s League One fixture at The Valley.

Asked if he didn’t want to identify which players are back to keep his team selection under wraps, Garner told the South London Press: “Yeah, a little bit. You don’t want to give too much away, in terms of what we’ve got available.

“As it stands we’ve got one [player] due to start full training on Thursday and that will only leave one player out injured. So hopefully I’ll get some good news when I pop out of here and speak to the medical team.

“From Thursday onwards there is just one more to get back in, which is probably a couple of weeks away. Touch wood, we keep everyone fit during that period and we’ll have a fully fit squad in a couple of weeks time.”

Charlton’s home game against Exeter City on Saturday was postponed – the EFL calling a halt as a show of respect to Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away on Thursday.

“We were waiting on Friday morning to find out if we were playing or not,” said Garner. “We didn’t get news until we were out training. We were halfway through a session, preparing for Exeter, and then we got the news the fixtures were postponed. We had a plan A and plan B for Friday. We were halfway through plan A and quickly changed to plan B.

“We went through a little bit more of a tougher session and a little bit more free-flowing football, worked on some elements that we wanted, and then gave them Saturday off. We trained again yesterday and we train again this afternoon, going into tomorrow’s game.”

There will be a minute’s silence before the Tuesday match and the national anthem to be played

“It’s a great opportunity for all of us at the football club, along with Forest Green, to come together and show our respects – to honour a truly incredible life,” said Garner. “I was talking to a friend on the day the Queen passed and it was an amazing fact that the first Prime Minister she appointed was Winston Churchill. He was born in 1874 and then, in 2022, she’s appointing Liz Truss as Prime Minister. It shows the scope of her life and incredible service that she gave.”

PICTURE: PAUL EDWARDS