Speaking to Examiner Live, Huddersfield Town boss Danny Cowley has played down the injury worries surrounding loaned in Arsenal man Emile Smith-Rowe after he was substituted against Charlton Athletic with what seemed to be a back problem.
With 70 minutes on the clock, Danny Cowley took off attacker Emile Smith-Rowe with the scores at 1-0 in their tie with relegation rivals Charlton Athletic, with the Arsenal loanee holding his back. Alex Pritchard came on for the Terriers are they went on to score three more to secure a comfortable 4-0 win over the Addicks to boost their hopes of survival.
Some feared that Smith-Rowe’s injury could see him out of action, but Cowley has quickly moved to play down fears of an injury, saying to Examiner Live that the youngster was “just feeling his back” and that he will be getting ready in time to play Leeds United next Saturday, he said:
“He was just feeling his back. Like I’ve said before we didn’t want to leave him out of the starting eleven last Saturday but you’ve seen that we’ve had two home games and we wanted to play him in the two home games for obvious reasons.
“We had to be a little bit disciplined with him last Saturday but he was able to play Tuesday night and play ever so well and I thought some of his play against Charlton was excellent.
“We’re always going to want more from him so there’s definitely things he can add to his end product. But no, he just was tiring and feeling his back a little but it’s pretty low level. We’ll freshen him up now and get him ready for the Leeds game.”
Since signing on loan for Huddersfield in the January transfer window, Smith-Rowe has scored one goal and provided three assists in nine appearances for the club, coming in to bring some more creativity to Danny Cowley’s side as they look to maintain their Championship status.