Coventry City news from CoventryLive as Mark Robins addresses plans for versatile midfielder with a year left on his contract
Mark Robins has given a clear indication on Coventry City midfielder Jamie Allen’s short-term future at the club. The 29-year-old has endured one of his most traumatic periods of his career over the last 12 months and, with just a year left on his contract, some have questioned whether he faces a crossroads in his Sky Blues career this summer.
Allen was limited to just 14 starts during the 2023/24 campaign and sat out 19 Championship games due to illness or injury. The versatile player’s season got off to the worst and most worrying possible start when he suffered a heart scare last June as he was preparing to return for pre-season.
A short spell in hospital was followed by extensive tests as he missed City’s warm-up matches and the first five games of the season. He made his first start at the end of September and, aside from missing two games in mid October with a calf injury, enjoyed a decent 11-game run in the side before slipping back onto the bench, including three games as an unused substitute in late December and January.
He captained the team for the 2-1 defeat at Norwich in early February but then suffered a second major blow in the 4-1 FA Cup fourth round replay against Sheffield Wednesday when he sustained a fractured cheekbone, resulting in him having surgery and sitting out for a further 12 games.
He returned to the squad at the back end of April when he was a late sub in three of the last four games of the season, including popping up with a consolation goal – his one and only of the campaign – in the dying minutes of the last match against QPR.
“Jamie has had a stop-start season, really a stop, stop, stop-start season,” said manager Robins, who clearly sees the player as very much in his plans for next season, adding: “Hopefully he will have a clear run through pre-season and get through that and be available for the majority of next season.“And hopefully we can keep the majority of the squad together, the players that we want to stay, the players who are in contract. And we’ll certainly be strong on that and will try to add to the team where we can to give us a better chance of getting results next season because we want to be in that top six next season.”
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