Kieran McKenna, manager of Ipswich Town, has stated that new signing Axel Tuanzebe would not be hurried into action.
Manchester United just released the 25-year-old centre-back after a couple of injury-plagued years on loan at Aston Villa, Napoli, and Stoke.
Ipswich Town offered him a one-year contract last week, convinced that the former England youth international had overcome his back problems.
“He’s settled in really, really well,” McKenna added. “He’s training with the group and appears to be in great shape.”
“With him, we have a time frame that we’re working towards. In terms of time on the turf, he’s probably still in the early phases of pre-season.
MORE: McKenna is preparing to rotate his players throughout the demanding season
“He trained for maybe a week or so before coming here (on trial with Luton), but we want to be really methodical and sensible in terms of how we reintegrate him to the group and how we reintegrate him to matches because he’s had 18 months really of a (back) issue that we think is now in a really good place.”
“However, we don’t want to rush him back into competitive action and increase the chances of a setback.”
“So we’ll do it carefully and thoughtfully in order to benefit from a fully-fit Axel Tuanzebe for the rest of the season and beyond (Ipswich have a one-year extension option), which would be a huge benefit to us as a club.”
MORE: Watch Alex and Stu react to Kieran McKenna’s pre-match news conference in video form.
“However, we don’t want to rush him back into competitive action and increase the chances of a setback.”
“So we’ll do it carefully and thoughtfully in order to benefit from a fully-fit Axel Tuanzebe for the rest of the season and beyond (Ipswich have a one-year extension option), which would be a huge benefit to us as a club.”
MORE: Watch Alex and Stu react to Kieran McKenna’s pre-match news conference in video form.
