Sky Blues boss Mark Robins revealed he will be without on-loan Chelsea defender Ian Maatsen for tomorrow’s clash with Peterborough United.
The defender missed the FA Cup victory over Derby County after picking up a knock in training and Robins told how the Peterborough game will come too soon for the defender and despite online speculation, the City boss has no doubts Maatsen will be with the Sky Blues for the remainder of the 2021/22 season.
“Ian has been having some treatment and is back with Chelsea and he won’t be available for the game this weekend.
“We don’t need confirmation from them (Regarding his future). He is with us until the end of the season unless we have a conversation with Chelsea where there are extreme circumstances, but from my point of view we have had no contact with them, and I don’t anticipate any.
“It was disappointing to lose him through injury because he was looking really good in training and then right at the end he felt something and ended up getting a tweak on his hamstring.”
Robins will also have a selection dilemma when it comes to who is between the sticks for tomorrow’s game at the Weston Homes Stadium.
With Simon Moore testing positive for Covid-19 just after Christmas, Ben Wilson has come in for the last two outings and Robins has been impressed with the ‘keeper.
“Ben made a brilliant save in the first half and he was also really good with his feet and that’s something that’s really important.
“We have two really good goalkeepers who are competing for a starting berth so it gives you food for thought and this weeks training has been really interesting to.
“It’s good to have two goalkeepers who are performing at a really good level so its good for us, but not only that we have two young ones underneath them who are trying to close that gap.”
There was also an update on Gustavo Hamer, who was carrying a knock during the win over Derby last week.
“We’re more or less at full strength.
Gus is ok, he has been training and we have a full complement other than Maats to choose from, sow ere in decent shape in terms of numbers.”
Finally, Robins was asked about the latest development of defender Josh Reid, who the Sky Blues signed this time last year from Ross County.
“Josh is doing ok; he is performing really well for the 23s. He has played Scottish Premiership and he has experience of first team football.
“He is robust and is still very young and still developing, he’s doing well and he’s training with us and we take a look at him on a daily basis.
“He is a steady player who still has improvement there and we will see how he goes and see how he develops.”