The pacy forward hasn’t featured since the New Year’s Day match at Forest Green, but Johnnie Jackson confirmed that he’s in contention to feature at the South Yorkshire venue tomorrow after recovering from injury.
“Josh has trained fully this week and he has travelled with the squad, so he’s available,” confirmed Johnnie. “He’s been out a long time, so we need to be a bit careful with him.
“Josh had a very good start to the season, but he suffered an injury to his lower back, which was frustrating for us all. It was a difficult one to manage because he was able to play on with it for a certain period, but it was affecting the way he was playing, so he had to stop and let it heal.
“His back is fine now, so he’s ready to return. When Josh is fit and fresh he can be a big player for us, so we’re delighted to have him back.”
When asked about Kofi Balmer’s hamstring injury after the midweek loss at home against Crawley, Johnnie’s reaction was conflicted.
Johnnie said, “It doesn’t look too bad; we are probably looking at a fortnight without him.” Although his hamstring injury is disheartening, there are worse things that may happen to an athlete. While we’re disappointed that he will miss games, we’re relieved that the injury is not serious.
With 13 league games left in a season that has seen significant improvement for the Dons, Johnnie has urged everyone to remain together in the hunt for a League Two play-off spot.
“I believe that overall, the fans are satisfied with the improvement the team has made, as evidenced by the away games when they have travelled in large numbers. They have expressed their support in a loud manner, but they also have the right to express their annoyance.
This season has been unique since we have occasionally been predicted to win. Each of us becomes irritated when that doesn’t happen. Everyone supports our efforts and our accomplishments, therefore in order to make one last push, we must all stick together.
We have to give it our all in these next two matches of February because it’s the last one. Everyone is involved in that, including the players, employees, and supporters. We’ll see where it leads. I hope we can make it to our desired location.
Compared to last season, when the Dons were in danger of being drawn into a relegation battle, they are now solidly in the running for the top seven.
“As a football team, we’ve progressed significantly since this time last year, when we were worried about the future,” Johnnie said. However, this season presents a goal for us to pursue. It goes without saying that there are many clubs vying for the playoff spots, but it gives us incentive to fight our way in.
“We have a great chance if we can find that consistency in the next 13 games.” We’ve been missing a few important players, so maybe we’ll be stronger when they return and this recent run of bad luck will simply be a temporary setback. There wasn’t much to look forward to at this time last year, but now there is everything to be excited about.
Training was moved to the 4G surface at the Elmbridge Xcel Sports Hub in Walton before to the trip to Doncaster. Although Johnnie did not want it to happen, he thinks the staff is striking the correct balance in order to attack the remaining 13 matchups.
Johnnie continued, “You want to be on the grass a day before the game, so it was not ideal training on the 4G today. Although the weather made that impossible, many teams face comparable difficulties. There were plenty of soggy surfaces elsewhere, but we also had the option of training someplace along the way. We had a productive training session, and everything at Walton was OK.
The team is good overall, but you need to mix training and recovery properly to guarantee optimal condition. In between the games, we’ve been careful not to overcook the boys, but there are still areas we need to improve on to become more proficient players. We also need to work on the opponents. Though I believe we are striking a nice balance, we still need to maintain their freshness for the games.
“We switched up our structure on Tuesday, and for a while I believed it was effective. We play in a few different ways, and we adjust our strategies according to the opposition we face. After a few games where things didn’t go our way, there has been enough evidence to imply that we don’t need to completely change our approach. We’ll constantly be on the lookout for methods to harm the adversary, including by changing up the personnel. Really, horses for courses.”
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