Harrison Ashby is back from injury and feeling good
The 20-year-old was involved in the under 21s first league win of the season – against Wolves – on Monday which suggests that tonight’s match may come too soon given his recent injury issues.
Harrison Ashby
But the exciting right back – who has been regularly tipped as a target for Newcastle in January or the summer – may make the bench with nine subs available for the game against Blackburn Rovers.
He made an appearance in last week’s European conference clash and David Moyes may be looking to give him as many minutes as possible given the interest from the north-east.
Ashby was given the captain’s armband for Monday’s Premier League 2 win, a role the defender was honoured to take on in a young development side as they earned a first league win of the 2022/23 campaign.
Commenting on his return to starting a 90 minute games against Wolves he told www.whufc.com he said: “It was a big one for me as well because I’ve been out with injury for a bit. For us to play like that, at home, and get such a big win is massive for us.
“We’ve obviously not had the best of runs since the start of the season so to get a win in that style, and getting three very good goals with a good style of play, is a massive confidence boost for the lads,” he told whufc.com.
“I’m feeling good. I feel fit. I’ve got no recurring problems and a good couple of weeks in training. Obviously, I played Thursday night against FCSB in Romania, which was good, and I got a good 90 minutes against Wolves on Monday, so I’m feeling great.”
“In terms of the U21s, we almost had a completely new group at the start of the season,” he continued. “There’s been a couple of the more senior boys who have tried to help the younger lads along, but it has been a little slow going for us at times.
“I think, from Monday’s performance, you can see everyone is gelling together in this squad. Robbo’s tactics are doing wonders for us as well and you can see that in the games we’re playing too.
“Over the last year or so, I’ve been one of those more senior lads and I’ve been trying to use my voice both on and off the pitch, influencing our players in a good way. To be captain in Monday’s game hopefully shows I’m ready for that kind of role.”
“I’m always trying to push to be in and around the first team. That’s the goal for all of us and I’m going to keep doing that. From the performance on Monday, we can hope a few of the young boys will be involved in the first-team Carabao Cup game on Wednesday against Blackburn Rovers.
“Whatever happens though, we’ve got a big couple of games at U21s level before the World Cup starts, and we need to get maximum points from them.”