Millwall loanee striker happy to keep talks over his future on ice until the Championship season ends

BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk

Josh Coburn wants to put any thoughts about his long-term future to one side until after the completion of the Championship season.

The 22-year-old Middlesbrough striker is on loan at Millwall and the South London club have made no secret they would be interested in making the move permanent.

Our website reported that the Lions were open to a transfer in the winter transfer window when Coburn, who has scored four goals in eight starts, was out with a broken left foot.

But nothing materialised and Coburn is due to head back to Teesside at the start of May, unless the South Londoners can mount a late surge for a play-off place.

“I’ve loved my time down here and loved playing for this club,” Coburn told the South London Press. “For me it was just best to concentrate on this season and getting to the summer – then those conversations can take place.

“A lot of things aren’t in my hands. Some of it is down to Boro and what they want, everything like that. Boro have been quite good saying for me to concentrate on this season, knuckle down here and see where that takes you.

“I don’t really want any distractions in the season. I know there is speculation, but I just need to concentrate on game by game and wait for the summer to come.”

Coburn’s campaign has been hampered by injuries.

He missed around two-and-a-half months with his fracture, returning on February 18 at Preston, and picked up a calf issue after scoring on his debut against Sheffield Wednesday.

“It has been really frustrating with the injuries – they have come at the worst possible times,” said Coburn.

“I’d never really had that before in my career. It has made me learn how to deal with injuries. Especially being down here, away from everyone, the lads have been brilliant with me.

“I took a ball down the line (in the Oxford game) and the centre-back has landed on my left foot. It has twisted while he has landed on it. That was 30-35 minutes in and I carried on until half-time and then it just swelled up massively – I couldn’t play on.

“It was a straight fracture, so pretty simple to deal with. I didn’t have to have surgery – which was lucky.

“Because I got landed on I thought it might just be bruising – a bad whack – but it just wasn’t going away. The physios were a bit concerned at half-time.

“I knew the day after it was bad because I just couldn’t walk on it at all.

“The last international break came at a good time. You can look at it both ways – that I got a bit of a run back in the team and I was doing alright. But I sort of needed a rest.

“I didn’t want my body to break down and that’s why the gaffer was really careful with me in certain games. He’s been really good. Now I just want to get back into it.”

Millwall are six points adrift of the play-offs with eight games to play. The margin for error, starting at Sunderland tomorrow, is wafer thin.

Coburn said: “We all still believe and the gaffer says: ‘Just try and keep our season alive’.

“The last thing you want is not to play for anything. Saturday is a massive game because if we lose that it is a bigger gap.

“But if we go on a run, I don’t see why we can’t do it. With a good run you soon climb up the table.

“I always want more goals. My aim is just to try and end the season as well as possible. Give my best for the team, because it has been a stop-start season. I hope I get a good run now.”

Coburn’s second match back from his foot injury saw him miss a late penalty at Derby County on February 22, only to then still score in the fifth minute of stoppage time.

“I would probably say that was the biggest part of my season,” he said. “Such a relief, more than anything, and such a massive game for us to win to keep looking up the table.

“We did penalties in training a few days before and I’ve drilled it down the middle. I’ve tried to do that in the game and I’ve scuffed it.

“I was gutted after the penalty – it wasn’t a good one – but I just knew I was going to get another chance and that I just needed to be in and around the area. Luckily I was and it went in.

“The gaffer said: ‘You’ve won the penalty and missed it – it is what it is’. He told me to keep going and that I was going to get another chance – get your mind back on the game.”

Mihailo Ivanovic’s late winner against Stoke City before the international break came after a foul on Coburn inside the penalty area. The Serbian striker took on spot-kick duties.

“The gaffer leaves it up to us about who takes it,” said Coburn. “We’ve had a few struggles in the penalty department but I said I’d take it. It doesn’t really affect me that much if I have missed one.

“I’d take it again but Mika wanted it and he hadn’t had a penalty this season. It was a really good penalty and we win the game, that’s all the matters to me.”