Progress report as Josh Kayode bids for Rotherham United return
CENTRE-FORWARD Josh Kayode is closing in on a first-team comeback after undergoing knee surgery that ruled him out for more than six weeks and forced him to miss the start of Rotherham United's League One campaign.
The 25-year-old, who has been hit by a series of fitness issues over the last three seasons, has made good progress following the minor procedure early last month.
He is expected to return to training before the South Yorkshire derby at Doncaster Rovers in nine days' time, although that fixture could come too soon for him to be included in the squad.
“I'm hopeful that ‘JJ’ will be back in training next week,” manager Matt Hamshaw
Kayode, who signed a new 12-month deal in June, is one of a large number of Millers casualties. After last week's clash at Cardiff City, the club had nine men in the treatment room.
The others were Joe Rafferty, Kion Etete, Sam Nombe, Lenny Agbaire, Josh Benson, Kian Spence, Shaun McWilliams and Ben Hatton.
Hamshaw said that he expected only Rafferty, Etete and McWilliams to have a chance of being involved in the home clash against Wigan Athletic this Saturday, although another player isn’t far away from being available again.
“We're hoping to have Kian Spence back by the beginning of September,” he said. “When we start getting bodies back, we'll obviously be a lot stronger.”
Joe Powell missed out against Cardiff so he could be at the birth of his first child and is available for the Latics contest
“Losing Powelly last week was a big blow for us on the back of losing Nombe the week before,” Hamshaw said. “I don't think we're a club who can lose those sort of players.
“In a couple of weeks, we should have a much better squad depth and then we can make changes to affect games.”
McWilliams has trained this week after a groin issue kept him out of the Cardiff encounter and should make the matchday 18 against the Latics.
Rotherham have won two and lost two of their four matches in the early stages of the boss's rebuild after a summer of recruiting young players.
The casualty count has restricted his options off the bench and he added: “In a couple of weeks, we should have a much better squad depth and then we can make changes to affect games.”