Boss Roy Keane was delighted to see midfielder Luciano Civelli return to action after 16 months out during last night’s 9-1 win at Newmarket. The Argentinian has been sidelined since March 2009 when he damaged knee ligaments in the 1-1 home draw with Burnley.
Keane said: "We’ve got an important player back for us again. We’ve not seen too much of him at the club. He’s been out for 16 months and that’s a long, long time, so it’s great for him to have half an hour.
"He might get another run-out on Friday [at Histon] as long as there isn’t any reaction from the injury after tonight.”
Keane says it's important not to expect too much from the former Banfield man at this early stage: "It was good to see Luca back playing football again but we have to be careful with him. He's only had 25 minutes, so we don't want to get ahead of ourselves.
"It was great for the fans to see him again. He came to the club with big expectations but had a really bad injury and had setback after setback.
"Sixteen months is a long, long time out and it's not just about the physical side of recovering from that injury but the mental side as well."
The Histon match has been arranged to replace the planned Southend game which was cancelled earlier in the week as the Shrimpers were unable to field a side, something which disappointed the Blues boss: "That’s football, it lets you down.
"I spoke to their manager [Paul Sturrock] on Monday. They’d arranged the friendly, I’m sure he’s got his reasons and excuses but it’s not great professionalism from their club just to cancel a game like that.
"It’s not fair on our supporters, but we’ll get on with it and we’ve got more important things to worry about than Southend.”
Town’s remaining pre-season games can be seen here.
Photo: James Ager