Paul Hurst on late Shrewsbury deal and Harrison Biggins position after summer signing loan

Belgian Ojo, 33, sealed a season-long loan from Port Vale that was confirmed just an hour before the 11pm summer deadline last Friday.

Ojo, who Hurst briefly worked with at Scunthorpe United, was not registered in time to feature less than 24 hours later as Town recorded a first league victory of the season against Leyton Orient.

Fellow deadline day recruit Alex Gilliead solved Hurst's central midfield issues and featured in the position with Carl Winchester (hamstring) and Jordan Rossiter (knee) unavailable. Hurst is confident Ojo – who has played in Britain since 2017 – remains physically fit and in good shape for his advancing years.

“Funso’s good to go on Saturday, I know he’s just turned 33 but he’s a really fit lad," Hurst said.

“He prides himself on being right and looking after himself, and I think he can use his experience to pick the right times to exert his energy and when to save it.

“I do think he’s different to what we’ve got and on the training pitch everyone will see the quality that he’s got."

The Town boss had only predicted another single addition on deadline day as Gilliead joined on a free transfer and summer signing Harrison Biggins moved out on loan to Carlisle. Ojo's move was a late one but one the head coach was backed to make by chairman Roland Wycherley when the idea became a possibility.

“No (didn’t expect to loan Ojo when he woke up on deadline day), the general conversation with the chairman was that we’d done our business," Hurst said.

“We kind of had an agreement to bring another player (Gilliead) in and then he supported us when it came to bringing a second.

“Harrison (Biggins) wasn’t part of that in terms of going out to try and recoup some money, those circumstances played out later in the day in general.

“It was a little bit different from what I expected it to be, especially in the middle of the week, but I’m delighted to get them in.

“In terms of Harrison (Biggins) he’s still very much our player and we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on how he gets on up there, he won’t be forgotten.

“As I said to him there’s a lot of football to be played between now and January, and we’ll see where things are when that comes around.”