3/1 To Win
Gary Rowett has confirmed that Andre Wisdom is likely to return to the matchday squad when Derby County take on Barnsley in the Carabao Cup Second Round on Tuesday night.
The 24-year-old right back missed Friday night’s stunning 5-0 victory over Hull City at Pride Park Stadium due to illness.
The former Liverpool man was set to start the match, but pulled out just hours before the game and was replaced by Chris Baird, but Rowett, the Derby manager, has confirmed that Wisdom has returned to training.
There are, however, doubts over the fitness of defenders Curtis Davies and Marcus Olsson and both are set to be assessed ahead of the trip to Oakwell.
Rowett said in his pre-match press conference: “He (Andre Wisdom) is ok; he should train this morning (Monday).
“I think it was just a 24-hour bug really and before a game, when you have to make that call quite late, it is never an easy one, but unless someone is 100 per cent right, for a game of that magnitude, there was no point taking that risk.
“I think the decision was justified by Baird’s performance, because he was excellent. Aside from that, we have got Curtis Davies who just felt his groin towards the end of the first half and managed to get through the game.
“After I made my third substitute he started limping a little bit more and I was panicking at that stage! He should be ok.
“His wife actually gave birth to a little baby girl over the weekend, so I am sure he is going to be pretty fatigued.
“He’ll be in and will be assessed, whilst (Marcus) Olsson is in the same boat and got a whack. He did a light recovery session on Saturday for the Friday night starters and he was limping.
“We will assess where they are all at and go from there. There are players that are desperate for the opportunity to impress.”
Just like with the Grimsby Town cup-tie, Rowett is likely to make changes to his starting XI.
The 43-year-old has also suggested that he could call up a couple of players from Darren Wassall’s Under-23s squad.
Max Bird, who was named in the original abandoned meeting with Grimsby, and Callum Guy are set to be named in the matchday squad against the Tykes.
On the latter, Rowett revealed that Sky Bet League 2 side Port Vale were ‘desperate’ to take him on another loan deal, after impressing at Vale Park over the second half of the 2016/17 campaign.
The Rams’ manager, however, said he was keen to take a look at the box-to-box midfielder himself.
He said: “We want to expose some of these Under-23 players to first team football where and when we can. With a couple of players going out on loan, we might see Max Bird and Callum Guy – with us being light on midfielders – and take a look at them.
“Callum has trained for about a week with the Under-23s, but hasn’t played any match football within that at all.
“In an ideal world, you would give him three or four games before you get to this point, but he has looked quite good in training and with Timi Elsnik going out on loan, it’s a good chance for him.
“He did well at Port Vale last year, I know Michael Brown was absolutely desperate to take him back, but I want to watch him and see what I think of him.
“He’s done well in League 1 so the natural step would be to, at some point, see if he can do at this level.”
