Injury worries grow

Lloyd Jones had to be taken off at half time yesterday as a precaution as he rolled his ankle at the weekend.   He is unlikely to be available for Saturday's derby at Millwall.

Shell shocked supremo Nathan Jones says that the Josh Edwards injury is far worse than feared, news he described as 'catastrophic'.

Harvey Knibbs has not broken anything, but he has damaged his ankle ligaments and will be out for some time.

The latest line by Jones critics is that he does not know his best team, but it is no easy task to pick a best team from a thin squad.

As for those who call for the owners to show 'ambition', I am not spending any of my money on new players and I doubt whether other supporters are.

One piece of good news is that the new football regulator is going to focus on parachute payments as his first target.   They have such a distorting effect on the Championship.

Godden close to first team readiness

Richard Cawley reports:'Matty Godden closing in on a return to the first-team fold. Nathan Jones: “Matty Godden is a lot closer. He is far more mobile and doing the things we want him to do. He’s had two weeks now of fitness work. That is really good. It will give us another option, another headache. We are looking forward to that."

“Josh Edwards is the only one then that is a little way off.”

Tomorrow's opponents, Swansea City, have avoided defeat by Charlton in the last three encounters.  We last beat them in 2008, although obviously in many seasons we have been in different divisions.

The Swans beat a struggling Norwich City 2-1 at home last Saturday and then had a midweek encounter with an altered Manchester City side which they lost 1-3.

On the road the mid-table Swans have won two, lost two and drawn one, conceding just three goals.

CAS Trust notes that Swansea have one of the most international squads in the division and like to play possession football with short to medium passes: https://www.castrust.org/2025/10/valley-beats-charlton-v-swansea/

Surgery for Edwards

Left wing-back Josh Edwards has undergone surgery on the ankle he injured against Blackburn Rovers, reports Richard Cawlwy.. Nathan Jones: “Josh has had a surgical procedure which was the best scenario, because it sped up the process. That will be more weeks than a short-term one.”

Cawley asked Nathan Jones about Amari'i Bell, who didn't feature in Jamaica's second World Cup qualifier in midweek. NJ: "A bit of stiffness of certain stuff. Rather than risk him they kept him around. "Amari'i is back with us today. We'll assess him and see how he is to go on the weekend. He has played a lot of football and more consecutively than he did last year, so we have to be careful. Jamaica were respectful of that."

CAS Trust preview of game against Sheffield Wednesday: https://www.castrust.org/2025/10/red-white-black-and-back-on-track/

Josh Edwards injury worry

Richard Cawley reports, ‘Nathan Jones just told me that Josh Edwards set to go for a scan on his ankle and see a specialist. I'm not totally quoting him but his answer was along lines of "it doesn't look a great one"

.’Nathan Jones told Richard Cawley that the Scot sees a specialist tomorrow (today), so we see where we are. ‘He landed awkwardly and tweaked ligaments on the inside of his ankle, which is a bit of a rare one. We’ve got the international break coming up, which allows us to get a couple of weeks out of the way.’

Amari’i Bell, who has been so composed on the left side of a back three, was asked to continue in the left wing-back spot he slotted into once Edwards hobbled off at the weekend.

We have another tricky away fixture at Preston on Saturday.   I won't be covering this as I am going to Spain for a few days to see the branch of my family there, not least my great-granddaughter.

As my middle daughter's farm is in a remote location off grid, I won't have much internet access so I am taking a break from posting.