Three of Coventry City’s key players are back in training following injuries but Frank Lampard was today waiting on the return of his long-haul internationals before picking his team to face Derby County on Good Friday.
The good news is that star midfielder Jack Rudoni (calf), leading scorer Haji Wright (groin) and fellow striker Brandon Thomas-Asante (hamstring) all trained on Wednesday after recovering from their respective fitness issues and are hoped to play a part for the Sky Blues over the Easter weekend, which concludes with a trip to Hull on Bank Holiday Monday.
Defender Joel Latibeaudiere and winger Ephron Mason-Clark, meanwhile, have been travelling back from Mexico following their World Cup qualifying disappointment with Jamaica, who lost to DR Congo on Tuesday night. Flight problems on their return journey have delayed their arrival back in the UK, with the players still in the air when Lampard provided an update in his Thursday morning pre-match press conference.
FOLLOW ON FACEBOOK! Get more Coventry City news and analysis via our FB page
“We’re waiting for Ephron and Joel who are landing sometime today, this afternoon, so they’ll be in later on to see where they’re at,” he said.
“I think I mentioned before that it’s far from ideal that we’re playing on Friday night, with them travelling back, so we’ll have to see how they are. There were some complications with the flight on the way back. They changed flights and ended up on another flight and then another one and that delayed them coming back. I don’t want to point any fingers but it wasn’t great.”
Asked if the players travelled business or first class rather than economy in order for them to get their heads down properly and sleep on the flight to limit the effects of jet-lag, the City boss said: “Yeah, in the end the Jamaican boys travelled how we would want them to travel.
“Fatigue and jet-lag is a massive thing and we do everything we can to deal with it. There are some things that are probably the national team’s responsibility when they take your players to the other side of the world, and there’s everything that we can do around that, so that needs to be right. But I’m not trying to start a fight with anybody here. I’m just saying we try to make it as good as we can.”
Elsewhere, Frank Onyeka (Nigeria), Jay Dasilva (Wales) Romain Esse (England U-21s) have reported back to Ryton. Asked if all have returned unscathed and free from any knocks or niggles, Lampard said: “Yes and we all know what their minutes have been on the pitch but we’ll have to see for tomorrow.
“We’ll have to see for freshness and where everyone’s at because although it’s good that they go and play for the country, clearly, but the need for us to play on a Friday – I know it’s a traditional Easter weekend but this World Cup qualifiers or friendlies so close to our games, with a lot of travel, is far from ideal.
“There’s no point in me going on about it too much because it’s done now but clearly, two big players for us in terms of Joel and Ephron, specifically, coming back the day before the game from two different connecting flights from Mexico is not ideal. They’re our players and they want to get back and play but it’s very difficult, so we’ll see.”
As for his trio returning from injury, he said: “We’ll see how they all are. It’s early days but to train on a matchday minus two and then to play is slightly different, so we have to take that into account and see where they are, as individuals. The same goes with Brandon.”
Thomas-Asante withdrew from international duty with Ghana following City’s 3-0 win at Swansea, during which he had to go off with a slight injury.
Lampard explained: “He came off with a bit of a tight hamstring so he basically had a minor injury there. It’s very important to say that he was very, very keen to go (on international duty) but also very, very keen to do the right thing by us, so he got stuck in that horrible spot in which case I had to take that decision a bit, in conjunction with Ghana and the manager, who is since not there any more.
“But they were very good about it and it’s an important thing to say that Brandon was very keen to go and represent his country but, unfortunately, a small injury stopped that. So we’ll have to see where he is for these two games.”
Do you think any of the above will feature against Derby? Click HERE to have your say.
Get the latest Coventry City headlines sent straight to your phone
Get the latest Coventry City news sent straight to your phone by joining our Sky Blues WhatsApp group. It’s a free service. You just need WhatsApp on your phones to participate. To join, just click here, select ‘Join Community’ and you’re in. If you later decide to leave our community, you can do so by clicking on the name at the top of your screen and clicking ‘Exit Group’. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. If you are curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.
Every day, the CoventryLive football desk strive to deliver all manner of news, features and transfer-related stories as a part of our overall package of Coventry City content.
Our dedicated reporter Andy Turner – who you can follow on X – follows the Sky Blues home and away and offers you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between.
So much happens day to day and sometimes you can struggle to keep on top of the very latest updates as and when they occur – that’s why we have produced a daily newsletter which you can sign up to, for free, and which means you’ll have a round-up of the key stories land in your email inbox. You can also get all your favourite content from CoventryLive’s Sky Blues team on WhatsApp. Sign up f or breaking updates about the biggest stories in and around the club.