Shrewsbury loanee Christian Saydee hailed for playing with illness

Saydee, who joined the Shrews on loan from Premier League Bournemouth in the summer, has scored twice and collected a couple of assists in the side’s positive start to the season.

And the boss revealed that the 20-year-old had been suffering from a bug before the game yet still put in a shift before being replaced by Rekeil Pyke after 62 minutes at Home Park.

“I have been really pleased with Christian,” said Town manager Cotterill.

“I think the loanees as I have said before have collectively come in and been great in and around the place whether they have played in the games or whether they have been sub.

“I think he has done very very well and as I said he was struggling going into the game at Plymouth with that chest infection.

“It could have been one of those where I left him out the other night, and we did well to get 50 or 60 minutes out of him.

“Let’s just wait and see where we are this weekend with him really, but I am really happy with his contribution.”

Cotterill said Town would be keeping an eye on Saydee ahead of today’s trip to Portsmouth following his illness.

“That is why he came off so early in the game,” said the boss.

“He had a chest infection last week, I think there is a fair bit of it going around. He couldn’t get around the pitch as much as we would have liked him to have done. But hopefully, that will benefit him on Saturday.

“We have to wait and see where we are with him.

“But I think he’ll be better fitness-wise on Saturday than he was going into the game the other night.

“We seem to have a bug around the camp at the moment, but hopefully, he’ll be fine.”

And Cotterill said there was only so much preparation Town could do ahead of today’s long trip to Portsmouth – after their long return trip to Devon in midweek.

“They are very light,” said the boss on his players’ time on training pitch. “We will finish our preparations for Portsmouth but they have obviously been light.

“That is where we are with it – until you have been in the situation we are in this week, you have got to be in it to appreciate what’s got to be done. I would imagine there will be more done in a meeting room than actually out on a training pitch.”