Wigan Athletic boss Gary Caldwell provides positive Llyton Chapman injury update
Gary Caldwell has provided an encouraging injury update on young defender Llyton Chapman
Wigan Athletic boss Gary Caldwell has revealed that defender Llyton Chapman is set to integrate back into training as he continues his recovery from a knee injury.
The 20-year-old has not featured since suffering the injury in April after enjoying a breakthrough spell in the first-team under Caldwell.
Chapman was one of the major beneficiaries following Caldwell’s arrival as head coach in February, making his senior debut against Stockport County before going on to feature in nine consecutive matches.
Speaking after Saturday’s 3-1 pre-season defeat to Port Vale, Caldwell provided an encouraging update on the youngster’s recovery.
“Llyton will be on the grass with us next week and doing part training and building up his training minutes with the team,” Caldwell told Wigan Today.
“He has kind of ticked every box from a medical point of view, so he is ready to start integrating into training and start building up his training minutes next week.”
Caldwell also stressed that pre-season is mainly focused around building the players’ fitness levels and sharpness ahead of the demands of the upcoming League One campaign.
“I think that’s another key thing, the players are working extremely hard, they’re fatigued going into that (Port Vale) game,” he added. “They’re not going into it like a normal matchday in season when they’re fresh and ready to go.
“They’ve worked really hard this week, they’re pretty fatigued going into the game. You saw they were doing running after the game, so a lot of this is to get the physical fitness to last through the season, and as we get nearer the start of the season, that’ll come down in terms of the physical loads and the sharpness, so we’ll get better.”
Latics will continue their preparations with another friendly against AFC Fylde on Saturday, with Caldwell insisting there is still plenty of work to do before the new season gets underway in August.
”Another big week of training in preparation for another game on Saturday, so we’ll review that (Port Vale defeat), we’ll work on different things and still try to get more players in the building as well,” Caldwell added. “There is lots going on, lots to do, to get ready for the season when it starts.”