Aaron Pierre ready for Shrewsbury Easter return
Shrewsbury Town are set to be boosted by the return of defender Aaron Pierre for the Bank Holiday double-header and intense run-in.
The influential stopper is back in full training at Sundorne and pushing for a recall for the trip to his former club Northampton on Good Friday.
He has missed almost two months with a calf injury but his recovery will be a significant boost to Steve Cotterill’s side ahead of a run of 11 games in just over six weeks.
Pierre, 28, had been in supreme form since Cotterill’s appointment, only to pull up with the muscle problem after the 1-0 home defeat to Crewe on February 2.
Town also welcome back captain Ollie Norburn from a two-match suspension at the relegation-threatened Cobblers on Friday, while loan goalkeeper Matija Sarkic may be back from international duty.
Salop first-team coach David Longwell said: “When you are playing the amount of games we have, you are always going to get injuries.
“You are always going to get things that happen, on Saturday we are missing the captain who was still suspended unfortunately, we were missing a lot of key players.
“But that is why you have a squad. It does leave you stretched because it is game after game after game, you are always going to get that.
“I know for next week we’ve got a few coming back so we just have to deal with it.”
Town’s squad has been stretched with Brad Walker and Donald Love also missing, and Leon Clarke not registered. Academy teenagers Jaden Bevan, Charlie Caton, both 18, and 17-year-old Tom Bloxham were on the bench against Portsmouth on Saturday.
Former academy boss Longwell said: “It’s great for them to experience it, they deserve to be there because they’ve done really well with the under-18s.”
“Tom is only a first-year scholar, Charlie and Jaden are seconds and these opportunities show that as a football club we want to give players an opportunity to be around the first team.
“It’s good for the football club and most importantly those kids.”
