Town boss Roy Keane says no decision has yet been made on whether to extend Darren O’Dea’s loan spell from Celtic. The 23-year-old, who is out for six weeks having undergone knee surgery, is due to return to the SPL giants on January 17th.
Keane said: "We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. We’re in touch with Celtic all the time regarding Darren, with their medical staff over the last few weeks and I’ve been in touch with Lenny [manager Neil Lennon] up there.
"We’ll play that by ear. Darren’s due back in today [Thursday] after the operation. They’ve said six weeks but knowing Darren it’ll probably be less than that and we’ll see where January takes us.”
The Blues boss says he’s been delighted with the 23-year-old since he joined Town in August: "We’ve all been pleased with him at the club and I’ve told Celtic that. There was no surprise there because he’s a good lad and a good player.
"He settled into the team at left-back, then played centre-half at Reading and was due to play at centre-half against Leeds. It goes to show you have to have that bit of cover, which we didn’t have earlier in the season.”
Keane says O’Dea will remain with Town while he makes his comeback from the surgery: "He had one or two days’ recovery in Glasgow because his girlfriend’s up there. But he was flying back and he’s doing his recovery here.
"Darren’s quite happy to do that but like any injured player he’ll have his days off. Celtic are quite happy with that.
"We’ve got one or two new bits of equipment which we’ve brought in in the last week which are ideal for Darren’s type of recovery where he can do some sort of movement without putting weight on his knee. He’s in good hands with our medical team.”
Despite O’Dea’s injury Keane dismissed repeated claims that West Brom’s Joe Mattock was due to join the club on loan: "I think we’re OK for left-backs — Kennedy, O’Dea, Delaney can play there, Shane O’Connor can play there. Tommy Smith. Five left-backs is enough.
"He’s a good young player. These players get mentioned but we’ve had no contact with West Brom on that, none whatsoever.”