Rob Davies
Swans midfielder Joe Allen may have to wait to make his much anticipated second debut for the club as he not fit enough to start at Rotherham on Saturday.
The Welshman has played no part in the pre season fixtures and has been working on his fitness after picking up an injury on international duty.
The 32 year old signed a two year deal following Flynn Downes’ move to West Ham and will undoubtedly provide Russell Martin with valuable experience at this level.
Moving to quash any concerns about his injury record, Martin said that Allen actually played more games last season than Flynn Downes who he is largely replacing.
It’s a long season and rushing Allen back into the fold could do more harm than good so one would think Martin is doing the right thing by holding him back for now.
“I don’t think he’ll be ready to start this weekend, no,” the manager told Wales Online.
“I think there’s a thing around Joe where some expect him to be injured a bit, but not at all.
“I think he played 53 games last season, which is more than Flynn Downes did for us. He played brilliantly for Wales. He played a lot of games for Stoke, so we’ve got no worries really.
“It was an injury that happened at the end of the season. They’d been celebrating qualifying for the World Cup, which anyone would. He then picked up the virus and tried to play 45 minutes and unfortunately picked up an injury during that.
“So he’s fine, he’s in a really good place. He’s really happy to be back. We don’t want to rush him. We maybe could have rushed him to start this weekend, but then you run the risk of losing him further forward. It’s a really, really long season, so we’d rather he maybe miss this one, so that he’s available for a later one.”
