Steve Cotterill happy with progress of injured Shrewsbury duo Dan Udoh and George Nurse
Steve Cotterill revealed George Nurse and Dan Udoh have stepped up their recoveries as the duo come back from ACL injuries.
Udoh ruptured his ACL in Town’s 1-1 draw with Bristol Rovers back in August, whereas Nurse did his in the 2-1 win over Burton Albion in September – just four league games later – tremendous bad luck.
More than four months on, both have had surgery, and they are doing well with their rehabilitation according to Town boss Cotterill, but he says they are still unlikely to feature this season.
He said: “I think the lads have done incredibly well and George and Dan are doing incredibly well as well in the treatment room.
“They would be desperate to get out on the field at the moment with all the other lads.
“But that can’t be. Time will beat us there – there is no chance of that happening this season.
“It’s a credit to everyone, they are still very much involved. They are in every day, they are at every game. They are very much involved, those two boys.
“Dan Udoh is running on an AlterG (anti-gravity) treadmill now. Dan has been doing that. George is stepping up. They are both doing very, very, well. But they won’t do well enough that we’ll see them this season.
“At best, it will be some time back into training.”
The pair played integral roles in Salop’s 2021/22 campaign.
Udoh featured 46 times scoring 13 goals and Nurse played on 45 occasions in League One, so it has been a hammer blow for Shrewsbury to be without them for so long.
And with Rekeil Pyke and Ryan Bowman coming on at the weekend and scoring the boss was thinking about how much squad depth he would have should Nurse and Udoh have been available for him to select too.
“Imagine what it would have been like if we’d had Dan Udoh and George Nurse available” he continued.
“I think the testimony is to the rest of the players is that we have carried on going without Dan and without George, who both played 50-odd games last year.”
Town will be looking to continue their brilliant form, which has seen them win their last four league games in a row, today when they visit Oxford United.
The teams drew at the Meadow earlier in the season.
