Igor Vetokele could be set to return to Charlton’s squad for Saturday’s Valley encounter with Sheffield Wednesday.

The club’s top scorer has been out with an Achilles injury since being replaced at half-time during the 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth on October 18.

Charlton went on to beat Bolton 2-1 before drawing a blank in Friday’s 3-0 reverse at Fulham, despite dominating the second half at Craven Cottage in a game where Vetokele’s absence was sorely felt.

Asked this lunchtime if their star man could be back for the Owls clash, head coach Peeters was cautiously optimistic the striker might feature at some point.

“I don’t know, he was out today training,” the SE7 boss replied.

“Maybe, very maybe he is going to be in the squad (v Sheffield Wednesday).

“Then again if he is in the squad it is maybe is going to be for 15 minutes.

“We aren’t going to risk him (starting) because he is a very important player for us and we need to bring him back gradually.

“But again there is light at the end of the tunnel injury wise if Johann Gudmundsson can hold on, if Igor can come back.

“Rhoys Wiggins is coming back after a toe injury.

“Yoni Buyens is back (from suspension) so that gives us four quality players who are going to be available maybe to be in the squad. That will give us some injection.

“Rhoys Wiggins trained today, hopefully he will have no reaction tomorrow and then he will be back for Saturday.”

One big positive from Friday’s televised defeat at Fulham was the impact made by 17-year-old second half substitute Karlan Grant, who caused the home defence plenty of problems following his 68th minute emergence from the bench.

Peeters said: “I think everybody knows Igor is one of the best strikers in the Championship, but again if he is not fit he cannot play.

“On the other hand it gives opportunities to Karlan Grant.

“He did very well in the second half against Fulham.

“Again we need to be careful with him, he is a young gun who played the whole game against Bournemouth – that’s why we rested him, although he came on in the next two games against Bolton and Fulham.

“We need to be careful with players like that but that gives them options.

“Sometimes you lose a game but at this moment we are building a new team.

“We had some young players like Joe Gomez, Karlan Grant - and they can only learn by experience and playing games.

“I was not unhappy with second half at Fulham, I was not happy with the result  but if you play 14 games and you lose only  two and have 22 points – I think we are four points off top – nobody would have expected that.

“We have a small squad and when we lose some quality players it shows.

“That is normal but we have to go on and don’t think about it too much because as a manager you can’t do anything about it.”

With Vetokele only likely to be among the substitutes this weekend at home to Sheffield Wednesday, the head coach acknowledged there was a big temptation to start the game with Grant leading the line.

“That’s a possibility,” the Belgian said.

“I think he showed me that he is a guy that can start from the beginning.

“Tomorrow we will see after training who is fit, who is not fit, who is going to be in the squad and then we will pick the team.

“It is a 95 minute game and if we have some players maybe on the bench with quality who can give you something extra that gives you something special.”

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