Charlton Athletic boss Lee Bowyer is hopeful that his side will be able to retain Akin Famewo despite Norwich City having a recall option in the January transfer window.
The 22-year-old has impressed for the Addicks in League One this season, having formed a solid partnership with Ryan Inniss before the pair got injured.
Famewo has only made nine appearances for Bowyer's men in the league but an ankle injury has seen him sidelined again after returning from another knock that saw him miss nearly a month of action.
City do have a recall option on the defender in January but is unlikely they will activate that unless there is a major injury to one of their frontline defenders.
The Addicks are constrained by a salary cap and Bowyer needs to make every place in his squad count. Charlton's boss is optimistic that Famewo will remain with the club beyond the next month.
“Akin is injured but hopefully we can keep hold of him,” the Charlton boss told London News Online. “You have to sometimes look at the bigger picture. We’re not going to rush any decision with Akin, we’ll see how things play out."
A plethora of League One fixtures have been postponed due to several coronavirus outbreaks at clubs. On Tuesday, seven matches fell victim to numerous outbreaks, including Charlton's game with Peterborough United.
Bowyer is now expecting a 'circuit breaker' to break the transmission in League One and believes such a break would be helpful to the City loanee in terms of recovering from his injury.
“There might be an outside chance that games get cancelled. Now if that is the case and if the rumours of it moving along a month then Akin won’t be back long after that. It’s something we’ve got to take into account.
“We’re not going to make any rash decisions. You need to look at what he has done since he has been here – he has played very well. So that is something on the back burner.”
Charlton currently sit sixth in the table and have a game in hand that could move them up to second.
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