Mark Robins is pragmatic as he discusses the absence of summer signing Bosun Lawal.
Lawal was among nine first team squad players who were not in the match-day 20 for yesterday’s trip to Coventry. Frank Fielding, Ben Gibson, Josh Wilson-Esbrand, Sol Sidibe, Lynden Gooch, Andre Vidigal, Emre Tezgel and Ryan Mmaee were also out, mostly through injury. Fielding was there training with the keepers while Vidigal and Tezgel were not selected.
It has been a long year so far for Lawal since joining from Celtic in the summer. The initial medical advice suggested that he would need four weeks to recover from a pars injury in his lower back but instead he was in for a prolonged stay in the treatment room. He has only been given cameos so far.
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Robins describes him as a talented player but, stepping up to the Championship for the first time, hints he might need a run of games to find his feet that Stoke can’t really afford at this stage of the season in the scenario they find themselves in.
The manager said on Friday: “He’s ok, he’s getting better and he looks like he’s getting there but with the amount of time he’s had out, I genuinely believe it takes a long time to come back from a long time out. To get yourself back up to the level you were at previously can take a long time but he’s a young man with a lot of desire and he’s got a lot of talent as well, he’s a talented player and he’s working very hard to get into contention as quickly as he can.”
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