Town boss Paul Lambert has confirmed that Fulham midfielder Tayo Edun’s loan spell with the Blues is being ended early, the England U20 international having been back at his parent club in recent weeks in any case due to an eye injury which has required an operation.
"He’s away back to Fulham,” Lambert said when quizzed about the 20-year-old’s surgery just before Christmas.
"Again, he’s Fulham’s player and you can’t do anything about it. His operation is going to keep him out into the new year, so Edun will probably go back, [that will mark the end of his loan spell].”
Asked whether anyone else is currently lined-up to move on, he added: "Nobody will move on unless I get people in. That’s impossible, that can’t happen.”
Edun made four starts and three sub appearances for the Blues, scoring on his debut having come on as a sub in the opening day 2-2 draw with Blackburn.
The Cottagers' youngsters departure, the exit of winger Jordan Graham who is set to join Oxford and the end of injured ex-skipper Jon Walters's spell from Burnley means the Blues now have three loanees, Trevoh Chalobah, Matthew Pennington and Janoi Donacien until his permanent leave to remain has been confirmed.
Thanks to everyone @Official_ITFC for the support since the start of the season. All the best in 2019. Good luck and Happy New Year 🙌ðŸ¾ðŸšœðŸ’™ https://t.co/Xja0meeScd– edun (@TayoEdun) December 31, 2018
Regarding the Town players currently out on loan, Tristan Nydam’s half-season spell at St Johnstone is up in January and Lambert is going to speak to general manager of football operations Lee O’Neill about the 19-year-old’s situation.
"I’ll need to speak to Lee about that,” he said. "I’ve met the kid when he came in a few weeks ago. I spoke to him, so we need to speak to Lee and see what St Johnstone felt about him. That will probably be ongoing.
"He’s not played much at St Johnstone [one start and four sub appearances]. When you send people out on loan you’ve got to hope they play as many games as they can but he hasn’t played as much.
"But again, he’s a young player coming back and at this moment, in normal circumstances you’d bring them back and have a look at them, but at this moment we need a bit more experience.”
Out on loan for the season but with the Blues able to cut their spells short in January are Josh Emmanuel at Shrewsbury, Luke Woolfenden at Swindon and Ben Morris at Forest Green Rovers.
Asked whether he has any plans to bring them back, Lambert said: "They’re kids, you’re calling back kids to help kids. That’s a difficult situation to put anybody in.
"They need a little bit of experience. The younger ones need a little bit of experience to help them, even the lads that have not played at this level for a long time or most of their careers, a lot of the lads haven’t played at this level. A lot of them came from the lower leagues.
"That’s fine, but they need a bit of help with it and I think that’s what we have to get in, we have to get people who know the league, have played in it or have been around the block a little bit.
"You can take one, one can be a risk but you can’t do eight or nine or 10, you can’t do that.”