Nigel Adkins to play waiting game as new recruit Pape Souare builds up to full fitness
BY LOUIS MENDEZ
Nigel Adkins says he’ll play the waiting game with Pape Souare as the new Charlton signing builds up to full fitness.
The Senegalese left-back, snapped up as a free agent at the start of last week, played his first game of competitive football in nearly 18 months when he came off the bench for the closing stages of the 2-1 home loss against Cheltenham this afternoon.
He last featured for previous club Troyes in a French Ligue 2 game against Auxerre in February 2020.
Souare, who has played international football for Senegal and spent four years across South London at Crystal Palace, was involved in a serious road collision in 2016 and has played fewer than 30 games in the five years since.
He didn’t feature at all for Troyes during the 2020-21 campaign.
“That’s the million-dollar question, that’s the crystal ball,” said Adkins, when asked how far off full fitness his new recruit is.
“I’ve been really impressed in training. You can see the quality he’s got even when he’s on the pitch there and tried to play the ball with the outside of his foot to break their lines. The more we can get him on the training field, the more we can hopefully start to build that fitness level up.
“The big question will be if all of a sudden you put him in too long and too much and he breaks down with a soft tissue injury and is out for six weeks. We don’t want that to happen but that is what happens sometimes when someone has been out for a long period of time. There’s a lot of positive signs with Pape and I’ve been really pleased with the additions of the players.”
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