Jones will be eased back in
Aug 7 2008 by Mark Douglas, The Journal
ROY Keane expects Kenwyne Jones to be back in his Sunderland team in just over two months – and the Sunderland manager has promised his key target man a better supply line and that a new strike partner will be waiting for him.
An exploratory operation on Jones’ damaged knee ligaments has revealed no need for major surgery on the injury and the Sunderland boss now expects to welcome last season’s top scorer back to training in six to eight weeks.
Barring any unforeseen setbacks along the road to a full recovery, Jones has been pencilled in for a first-team return at Fulham on October 18. That date comes with the safety net of following the second international break of the season – giving Jones further time to gain match sharpness before being thrust into action.
The positive prognosis on Jones’ injury is a huge boost for Sunderland, who had been planning for the worst-case scenario of the striker being ruled out of the season. “He should be up and running in six to eight weeks – and when that happens there’ll be no fussing, he’ll be straight in,” said Keane.
“Unless there are any major problems with his recovery, he should be available quite quickly after that. We’ve been told that the recovery is a standard procedure, so we’re hopeful. Kenwyne is a big man and sometimes it’s harder for the big men to get up and running, but we’ve seen Kenwyne and he’s walking about on the training pitch.
“If I can bring in another striker, it will lessen the need to throw Kenwyne back in straight away and there are a couple of international breaks coming up, so we’re really looking at the second one in October. We won’t be rushing him back for one game if there’s a 10-day break coming up. That’s for the future, though. The most important thing at the minute is that everything goes to plan.”
While the impending return of his Trinidad & Tobago international won’t halt Keane’s search for a new forward – which has been ongoing since the turn of the year – it is likely to mean Sunderland’s flirtation with a 4-5-1 formation lasts only as long as Jones’ rehabilitation. The identity of Jones’ potential strike partner is still a cause for debate and Keane played a straight bat to questions about a potential approach for Manchester United striker Louis Saha.
The former Newcastle loan signing’s troubled injury past and wage demands are both potential roadblocks to that move, clearing the way for Sunderland to firm up their interest in Reading’s Kevin Doyle. Either of those players would ease the burden on Jones, something that Keane believes will help his striker to have an even bigger impact on the Premier League next season. “What we have done for Kenwyne this year is give him more support. And hopefully that process will continue over the next couple of weeks.
“We didn’t get enough quality balls into the box last year for one reason or another, so when Kenwyne gets back, I think he will be getting better service. And on top of that, we also hope to have a strike partner for him to challenge the other players.” Of the players on their way out, Keane has confirmed Rade Prica is in talks with Scandinavian teams about a possible loan deal. But he denied that anyone has made contact about Michael Chopra, linked in some quarters with Hull City earlier in the week.
“We have had one or two calls over last few days about one or two of our players,” Keane confirmed. “I won’t go into individuals but there will be one or two moving out, even if it is on loan.
“The bottom line is we have a decent number of players, particularly in certain positions, and if you are a pro footballer, you want to be playing games, so there are offers we will put to the players.”
