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Dougie Freedman insists he has no intention of allowing Craig Davies or David Wheater to leave the Reebok – but revealed both players have work on their hands to cure long-standing fitness problems.
Wheater has not featured at all since the 3-1 defeat at Brighton, while Davies has started just once this season and had to postpone a first-team comeback last weekend with a hamstring problem.
Both have been persistently linked with loan moves in recent months but Freedman believes they still have a first-team future, provided they stick to the plan.
Davies could be back on the bench against Millwall tomorrow but the big target man has now been challenged to up his workload in order to force his way back into the starting line-up.
“He is a big guy and while he works hard, he needs to work harder because of the size of his frame,” Freedman said. “He continually needs to work on this; he has been stop-start this season which doesn’t help anyone. But he is fit, trained today and been out there running around, but we need to be careful what we do with him.”
Wheater started the first seven games of the season but has since slipped out of contention behind in-form duo Matt Mills and Tim Ream and skipper Zat Knight.
Freedman believes the former Middlesbrough defender’s fitness problems stem from a cruciate ligament injury sustained in April 2012 that kept him out for several months.
But he has denied reports that he could be willing to move the 26-year-old on. “The medical department feel that David was rushed back a little bit too soon and his knee kept on swelling every time we put him on a fitness programme we felt he needed,” Freedman explained. “He has been missing the first part of the week but then training the end of the week to see how he can go. He has been doing his own work. I saw signs on Tuesday he looked a bit leaner and stronger through his lower legs, and his ankles and calves looked more powerful in his jumping.
“I won’t loan him out because he needs the proper training.
“I have never doubted David’s ability on the pitch and his willingness to defend. But there have been question marks over his ability to play and train every week, and that’s what let him down at the beginning of the season.
“We have stripped it all back down to why his knee was swelling up. We have pulled him out of games and he has had a good week of training and there may possibly be a game at the end of it – or maybe not, depending on who I pick.”
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Wheater has not featured at all since the 3-1 defeat at Brighton, while Davies has started just once this season and had to postpone a first-team comeback last weekend with a hamstring problem.
Both have been persistently linked with loan moves in recent months but Freedman believes they still have a first-team future, provided they stick to the plan.
Davies could be back on the bench against Millwall tomorrow but the big target man has now been challenged to up his workload in order to force his way back into the starting line-up.
“He is a big guy and while he works hard, he needs to work harder because of the size of his frame,” Freedman said. “He continually needs to work on this; he has been stop-start this season which doesn’t help anyone. But he is fit, trained today and been out there running around, but we need to be careful what we do with him.”
Wheater started the first seven games of the season but has since slipped out of contention behind in-form duo Matt Mills and Tim Ream and skipper Zat Knight.
Freedman believes the former Middlesbrough defender’s fitness problems stem from a cruciate ligament injury sustained in April 2012 that kept him out for several months.
But he has denied reports that he could be willing to move the 26-year-old on. “The medical department feel that David was rushed back a little bit too soon and his knee kept on swelling every time we put him on a fitness programme we felt he needed,” Freedman explained. “He has been missing the first part of the week but then training the end of the week to see how he can go. He has been doing his own work. I saw signs on Tuesday he looked a bit leaner and stronger through his lower legs, and his ankles and calves looked more powerful in his jumping.
“I won’t loan him out because he needs the proper training.
“I have never doubted David’s ability on the pitch and his willingness to defend. But there have been question marks over his ability to play and train every week, and that’s what let him down at the beginning of the season.
“We have stripped it all back down to why his knee was swelling up. We have pulled him out of games and he has had a good week of training and there may possibly be a game at the end of it – or maybe not, depending on who I pick.”
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