Coventry City have had five Under-21s and two senior development players take part in the first team’s pre-season so far.
Elliot Betjemann is the latest teenager to step up, travelling to Germany with Mark Robins’ squad for Saturday’s friendly match with SV Darmstadt 98 after Ellis Simms joined the worrying list of close season injuries.
Others to have featured so far for the Sky Blues have been midfielder Kai Andrews and strikers Aidan Dausch and Justin Obikwu, while young goalkeeper Luke Bell has been training with the first team squad. Meanwhile, senior development lads Ryan Howley and Jack Burroughs have also been involved in City’s warm-up matches, with the latter featuring in every game so far.
“I think Jack’s done all right,” said Robins, who has deployed the versatile player at right-back, having spent a successful loan spell at League One Lincoln last season.
“He was playing right-back against Stevenage, as he did against Port Vale, so he’s done all right. It was a different challenge against Stevenage and then we obviously changed to a back three when they make their changes, so there was a different dynamic again.”
Howley also had a season-long loan spell at Scottish Premier side Dundee, albeit injury hampering his progress there. Young striker Obikwu, meanwhile, has stood out amongst the young professionals and Robins has already said he’ll have “plenty of takers” should the club decide to send him out on loan.
