Loanee Josh Kayode backed to stay fit and thrive at Shrewsbury

Towering frontman Kayode, who stands at 6ft 3in, has endured a frustrating couple of seasons with injury on previous loans from parent club Rotherham.

The 24-year-old agreed a seventh loan away from South Yorkshire last Friday and could make a first Town appearance at AFC Telford United tonight.

Head coach Hurst admits now the task for Kayode, and Shrewsbury, is to ensure regular game time.

“He’s a handful, he’s an imposing figure,” Hurst said. “He’s got all the attributes there, but what he hasn’t had – and there’s no hiding from it – is minutes on the pitch. Nowhere near enough for what he’d want.

“Some of that are injuries – not muscular ones that you are more frightened about if they occur all the time – but certainly one injury that kept him out for a significant period was a shoulder injury from a bad tackle. That’s bad luck.”

Kayode’s previous two loans, at Carlisle – where he has had three stints – and MK Dons were scuppered by injury.

“A lot of players we end up looking at have injury issues, that’s just fact. As you try to get a certain quality of player,” Hurst added. “We could maybe drop our standards and there’d be nothing wrong with them (physically).

“But I want players who can make an impact and with our medical team, our training, I hope we can make them a little more robust and keep them out there. There is a gamble, there’s always a gamble. Sometimes you can sign a player who’s never been injured and he gets that injury, and vice versa.

“I’ve had that in the past, players with bad injury records and we’ve worked with them and they’ve been fine. We hope that is the case here.”