Wycombe Wanderers head coach Mike Dodds has provided an update on striker James Berry.
The 24-year-old joined the Chairboys for an undisclosed fee during the January Transfer Window from League Two Chesterfield, but hasn’t made the matchday squads for the seven games since his arrival.
These were against Northampton Town (0-0), Barnsley (2-1 win), Cambridge United (1-1), Crawley Town (1-1), Bristol Rovers (2-0 win) and Wigan Athletic (0-0) in the league, and Preston North End (0-0) in the FA Cup respectively.
Prior to his move down south, he had scored 10 goals in 28 matches in all competitions this season.
Berry was also one of 15 new players to arrive at Adams Park last month (this includes the re-signing of Caleb Taylor on loan from West Bromwich Albion).
Speaking after the 0-0 draw against Wigan Athletic on February 22, Dodds said: “He's not injured.
“We’ve got a luxury of players available to us and he’s come into a football club that is not struggling or is in midtable.
“He’s come into a team fighting for promotion and it’s not just him.
“You’ve got the likes of Adam Reach, Anders [Hagelskjær] and Magnus [Westergaard] so it's not just James Berry, but I can understand it's frustrating for the boys but it is what it is.
“It is one of the biggest headaches I’ve got and the boys just need to roll their sleeves up and be better than the players in front of them.”
One of the new faces expected to feature in the stalemate versus the Latics was right back Fin Back.
The on-loan Nottingham Forest man made his debut in the midweek victory against Bristol Rovers.
However, he missed out on the Wigan match, with Jasper Pattenden making his first appearance in two months following a hamstring injury.
Dodds continued: “It is great to have Jasper back.
“He’s been training for a few weeks now and we knew he would be fit and ready.
“Fin picked up an injury on Tuesday and Declan [Skura] hadn’t done anything wrong [to be dropped] but he’s more of a centre half.
“The injury isn’t too serious with Fin, but we’ll have to wait and see.
“He’s being assessed by the medical team at the moment.”
Finally, Dodds has confirmed that striker Richard Kone will play some part in next week’s top-of-the-table clash at Birmingham City.
The Ivorian played his first game in just under a month, coming on as a second-half substitute in the draw against Wigan.
The head coach concluded: “Rich is one of the top scorers in the league so when you take a player of that quality out, it will be a big miss.
“Him being back is a huge plus.
“He got some minutes and he’ll get some minutes next weekend too and we’ll be building him up between now and the end of the season.”
