Da Man Clay
T'Blades
- Dec 16, 2004
- 16,286
Hinsh starts his comeback
By Andy Naylor
ADAM Hinshelwood is on the brink of a return to first team contention for Albion.
The highly-rated defender has a 45-minute outing today in a friendly behind closed doors against French club Le Havre.
It is Hinshelwood's first appearance since suffering knee cartilage damage in a pre-season friendly at Colchester in July and if he comes through unscathed he could be in the reckoning for Blackpool's televised visit to Withdean on Sunday (1.30pm).
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Manager Dean Wilkins said: "He's trained now for a couple of weeks and he looks very sharp. It's just seeing how he goes, talking to the medical staff and Adam and seeing how he feels.
"We'll play it day by day. He may look so rusty that straight away you think he's not ready yet but I would say if he plays anything like he's been training then we have to have a serious chat and decide what happens.
"Out of all the players at the club he is the most aggressive and most instinctive type of defender we have. He sees danger and deals with it really quickly."
Hinshelwood has been restricted to ten League starts in the last 18 months after sustaining a ruptured cruciate ligament in the same knee in March 2005.
Wilkins is desperate to have him back to help shore up a defence which has conceded ten goals in a run of four straight defeats.
Albion are also fielding two French trialists today, both defenders, while Michel Kuipers shares the goalkeeping duties with John Sullivan.
Kuipers will be back between the posts against Blackpool, as Wayne Henderson is with the Republic of Ireland squad for their Euro Championship qualifiers against Cyprus and the Czech Republic.
Young midfielder Scott Chamberlain, who featured in the first team squad for the first time as an unused sub in Saturday's home defeat by Chesterfield, is ruled out by an ankle injury he picked up in training yesterday, together with Chris Breach (knee).
The match against Le Havre is part of the exchange partnership scheme which has taken Albion to France for pre-season friendlies for the past two years.
By Andy Naylor
ADAM Hinshelwood is on the brink of a return to first team contention for Albion.
The highly-rated defender has a 45-minute outing today in a friendly behind closed doors against French club Le Havre.
It is Hinshelwood's first appearance since suffering knee cartilage damage in a pre-season friendly at Colchester in July and if he comes through unscathed he could be in the reckoning for Blackpool's televised visit to Withdean on Sunday (1.30pm).
continued...
Manager Dean Wilkins said: "He's trained now for a couple of weeks and he looks very sharp. It's just seeing how he goes, talking to the medical staff and Adam and seeing how he feels.
"We'll play it day by day. He may look so rusty that straight away you think he's not ready yet but I would say if he plays anything like he's been training then we have to have a serious chat and decide what happens.
"Out of all the players at the club he is the most aggressive and most instinctive type of defender we have. He sees danger and deals with it really quickly."
Hinshelwood has been restricted to ten League starts in the last 18 months after sustaining a ruptured cruciate ligament in the same knee in March 2005.
Wilkins is desperate to have him back to help shore up a defence which has conceded ten goals in a run of four straight defeats.
Albion are also fielding two French trialists today, both defenders, while Michel Kuipers shares the goalkeeping duties with John Sullivan.
Kuipers will be back between the posts against Blackpool, as Wayne Henderson is with the Republic of Ireland squad for their Euro Championship qualifiers against Cyprus and the Czech Republic.
Young midfielder Scott Chamberlain, who featured in the first team squad for the first time as an unused sub in Saturday's home defeat by Chesterfield, is ruled out by an ankle injury he picked up in training yesterday, together with Chris Breach (knee).
The match against Le Havre is part of the exchange partnership scheme which has taken Albion to France for pre-season friendlies for the past two years.
With him and Butters on the way back it could be a shot in the arm for our ailing defence.